Fully flexible opto-electronic foil
| Authors: | E. Bosman, G. Van Steenberge, I. Milenkov, K. Panajotov, H. Thienpont, J. Bauwelinck, P. Van Daele |
| Abstract: |
Abstract—In this paper, we present a process to embed commercially available optical material layers into a flexible foil. Patterning of the embedded layers results in highly transparent low-loss flexible waveguides. Bending of the foil down to a bending radius of 5 mm causes no additional optical propagation losses. Vertical cavity surface emitting laser’s and photodiodes are thinned down to 20 μm and are embedded inside the cladding layer of the waveguides. They are optically coupled with the use of embedded micromirror plugs. The result is a thin foil of 150 μm thickness with embedded active optical low-loss links. The presented links show an average total optical loss of 6.4 dB and a clear open-eye diagram at 1.2 Gb/s. The foil characteristics do not change after humidity and temperature cycling. |
| Year: | 2010 |
| Start Page: | 1355 |
| End Page: | 1362 |
| Journal title: | IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN QUANTUM ELECTRONICS |
| Volume: | 16 |
| Issue: | 5 |
| DOI: | 10.1109/JSTQE.2009.2039466 |
| Image: |
|