THICK PHOTORESIST ORIGINAL MASTER: A NEW TOOL FOR FABRICATION OF POLYMERIC OPTICAL WAVEGUIDES WITH LARGE CORE BY HOT EMBOSSING

A simple and low-cost fabrication method of polymeric optical waveguides with large core sizes for plastic optical fibers is presented. The waveguides are fabricated by hot embossing with a rectangular ridge ultraviolet (UV)-cured epoxy resin stamper. The stamper is fabricated by replication of a rectangular groove mold that is made from silicone rubber replicated from a rectangular ridge original master made from thick photoresist (SU-8). A rectangular ridge shape of the original photoresist master of 1 mm size was realized by using a flattening process, which involves hot embossing before the exposure process and using a UV-cut filter during the exposure process.