Method for manufacturing an optoelectrical component and an optoelectrical component manufactured according to the method

摘要

The optoelectrical components which up to now have been used in the fibre-optical region have had waveguides of quartz and glass with hermetic encapsulating, which components have had too high manufacturing costs for profitable use. Through making polymeric single mode (SM) waveguides from plastic, for example, benzocyclobutene polymer (BCB) a simple reliable and inexpensive concept for making waveguides can be obtained. Two of the commercially available grades of BCB/DOW Chemicals have furthermore a refractive index difference which permits manufacturing of buried waveguides with SM characteristics. These two types of BCB material have shown themselves to be especially usable for manufacturing of so-called buried SM waveguides: a heat curable grade (1,4) used for under- and over-cladding for waveguides and a photo-definable derivative (3) used as the waveguide material. Encapsulating of a waveguide chip can in this way be made with plastics, at the same time as the connector interface can be formed in the end surfaces of the components.