Low-loss polymeric waveguides having large cores fabricated by hot embossing and micro-contact printing techniques

We present simple, low-cost methods for the fabrication of polymeric waveguides that have large core sizes for use as optical interconnects. We have used both hot embossing and micro-contact printing techniques for the fabrication of multimode waveguides using the same materials. Rectangular and large-core (60 x 60 mum(2)) channels were readily prepared when using these methods. The dimensions of the embossed and printed channels were the same as those of the pattern on the original master. The polymeric waveguides that we fabricated with large core sizes exhibited a low propagation loss of 0.1 dB/cm at 850 nm, which indicates that hot embossing and micro-contact printing are suitable techniques for the fabrication of optical waveguides having large-core.