Important Parameters of printed polymer optical Waveguides (POWs) in Simulation and Fabrication

In this paper, polymer optical waveguides (POWs), fabricated by using flexographic printing for printing conditioning lines onto polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) foil substrate material and Aerosol Jet Printing for producing the core and cladding of the waveguide, are characterized by using Monte Carlo raytracing for the scattering process. This method offers the opportunity to simulate the propagation of light, which are traced through the produced POWs. In the first step, the surface roughness of all optical materials, which are involved in the fabrication process of the POWs, are measured. The roughness measurement of substrate, core and cladding material is necessary to interlink the surface roughness (Monte Carlo scattering model) with a non-sequential raytracing method. Not only the surface of each material is investigated, but also the roughness measurement of the interlayer between the printed core and cladding material is examined. To build up the complete manufacturing technology virtually, also the process parameters of the printing need to be investigated. The results of the tracing must be a value of the attenuation of a simulated printed POW to give the designer a feedback about the optical quality of the waveguide before the printing process. This project is part of the DFG (the German Research Foundation) founded research group OPTAVER where the goal is to build up the whole manufacturing process, from the CAD, over the simulation, to the fabrication process and coupling of such printed POWs.