Photolithographically Manufactured Acrylate Polymer Multimode Optical Waveguide Loss Design Rules

This paper describes how design rules are established for photolithographically manufactured acrylate polymer optical multimode waveguide components by optical experimental measurements made on the manufactured waveguide component. The loss of individual waveguide components, such as straight sections, 90° bends, crossings, tapers and tapered bends must be known so that the combined loss of a cascade of such elements can be found to determine whether the interconnection's optical power budget is sufficient to achieve a good bit error rate. However, the loss depends on several factors: the materials: the polymer used for the core and for the cladding, the fabrication technique: e.g. the photolithographic procedure and the precise temperature baking regime used, and the measurement technique: the optical source lateral size and angular divergence and precise position relative to the entrance of the waveguide, the output detector lateral size, its angular acceptance angle (if any) and its precise position relative to the exit of the waveguide. The experiments reported on photolithographically manufactured acrylate polymer multimode waveguide were performed at room temperature. A new technique for measure the transmitted power at waveguide crossings is reported for the first time.