Improving partial wetting resolution on flexible substrates for application of polymer optical waveguides

Abstract

Considering the increasing amount of data for communication and infotainment applications, fabrication of optical networks and bus systems is a challenging task for production engineering. A two-step manufacturing process for polymer optical waveguides is presented. By improving the highly efficient flexographic printing technology by laser functionalization of the printing tool in combination with a subsequent spray application, high-quality waveguides are accomplished. By adjusting the resulting surface energy of the foil substrate in the first fabrication process, the spray application achieved high-aspect ratio waveguides with a low attenuation of 0.2 dB/cm at 850 nm. © 2017 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).