Single-mode waveguides with SU-8 polymer core and cladding for MOEMS applications

Fabrication and optical characterization of singlemode polymeric embedded waveguides are performed. A specific material combination (SU-8 2005 as core and the modified SU-8 mr-L 6050XP as cladding) is chosen in order to obtain a small refractive index difference for single-mode propagation combined with the conventional fabrication method UV lithography to facilitate the integration of different types of optical detection methods on lab-on-a-chip systems.

We analyze the behavior of the refractive index and carefully observe how the value of the refractive index can be tailored during processing. We show that we can fabricate waveguides with an index difference in the order of 10−3, where both the core material and the cladding material are based on SU-8.

The refractive index measurements are performed on thin polymeric films, while further optical characterizations are performed on waveguides with a height of 4.5 μm. We study the mode profiles of these waveguides and confirm that only the fundamental mode is excited.We also study the absorption spectra of the material in the wavelength range 800–1600 nm combined with cut-back measurements.

We find that the waveguides have a propagation loss of 0.2–3 dB/cm in this wavelength range.