Highly Reliable Flexible Active Optical Links |
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Authors: | Bosman E Van Steenberge G Van Hoe B Missinne J Vanfleteren J Van Daele P |
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Affiliation: | CMST Microsystems (Centre for Microsystems Technology), Ghent University/Interuniversity Micro-Electronics Center (IMEC), Gent, Belgium; |
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Abstract: | 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 diodes (VCSELs) and photodiodes are thinned down to 20 $mu{hbox {m}}$ and embedded inside the cladding layer of the waveguides. They are optically coupled with the use of embedded micro-mirrors. The result is a thin foil of 150- $mu{hbox {m}}$ thickness with embedded active optical low-loss links. Accelerated aging tests prove the reliability of the embedded optical links exposed to humidity and temperature cycling. |
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