Flexible photonic sensors realized using printing technologies

Making sensors flexible and thin, is key to apply them on curved, moving surfaces, e.g. for wearable applications or to embed them in mechanical structures. Photonic sensor systems require the integration of microstructures (e.g. polymer waveguides), nanostructures (e.g. gratings), which can be realized using nanoimprint lithography, but may also need additional active or passive optical components, which can be integrated using laser printing technologies

Aerosol-jet printed interconnects for 2.5 D electronic and photonic integration

We demonstrate a flexible face-up 2.5 D packaging technique for a hybrid electro-photonic integration. The process is based on an aerosol-jet technology to print the high-speed electrical interconnects between electronic and photonic chips as a potential alternative for the traditional bonding wires. The technology is realized by creating a transparent mechanical polymer support to bridge the gap between the photonic and electronic chips and subsequently printing the electrical interconnects on top. First, the daisy-chain test chips were used to prove the functionality of the technology by printing the electrical interconnects between the test chips. Then, a standard 85 ° C/85 RH test was performed to investigate the reliability of the printed interconnects and no failure or degradation was observed over 700 h. Afterwards, the technology was successfully applied on functional chips. An optical transmitter based on vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) was demonstrated at 50 Gb/s by printing 200-μm-long high-speed silver interconnects between a 4-channel SiGe BiCMOS driver and four VCSELs. In addition, the technology showed the potential to interconnect silicon photonics chips. An assembly of an electro-absorption modulator (EAM) and a CMOS driver was successfully demonstrated. Clear open eye diagrams were obtained at 40, 50, and 56 Gb/s for the EAM-driver assembly even after 2 km of a standard single-mode fibe

Optoelectronics packaging for efficient chip-to-waveguide coupling

Recent progress on novel photonics packaging concepts will be discussed, allowing for a dense integration of optical waveguides, coupling structures, light sources, detectors, and electronic circuitry. Through the involvement in various European research projects, these concepts are developed in different application domains, including printed circuit board-level optical interconnects (EU-FP7 project FIREFLY), active optical cable assemblies (EU-FP7 project MIRAGE), and artificial optical skin (EU-FP7 project PHOSFOS)

Polymer micro- and nanophotonic sensors realized using replication technologies

Polymers are transparent in the visible, mechanically flexible, cost-effective, and therefore attractive materials for optical sensors. Furthermore, high-quality micro- and nanophotonic structures can be realized in polymers using replication-based technologies. This paper will demonstrate single mode waveguide Bragg grating sensors realized using various polymers, and as such illustrate the capabilities of replication technologies both for fabricating microstructures (waveguides with typical cross-sectional dimensions of a few micron) and nanostructures (gratings with typical pitch of a few hundred nanometer) using these technologies. Furthermore, we illustrate that the sensor properties can easily be tuned by selecting the appropriate polymer material

Adaptive coupling approach for single mode VCSELs with polymer waveguides

A novel coupling approach for single mode VCSELs and planar optical waveguides is presented. The coupling is based on the embedding of the VCSELs inside the substrate and the adaptive fabrication of waveguides on top