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First photonic ring resonator fabricated with soft UV-Nanoimprint Lithography presented by AMO and RWTH
29 April 2008, Source: AMO GmbH
Researchers at AMO (Applied Microelectronics and Optronics Company) and the Institute of Semiconductor Electronics at RWTH Aachen (Research Institute at Aachen University of Technology) have realised an innovative fabrication method for high-quality resonant photonic devices on SOI (Silicon-on-Insulator) substrates. The entry point to the recently heralded electronic–photonic convergence is particularly reliant on the availability of relatively inexpensive methods of fabricating photonic silicon structures. One of the most promising low-cost fabrication techniques for the emerging field of SOI photonics appears to be Ultraviolet Nanoimprint Lithography (UV-NIL), where a transparent and patterned template is pressed into a low viscosity UV-curable resist. In the MONA Nanophotonics Technology Roadmap (http://www.ist-mona.org), UV-Nanoimprint Lithography is considered one of the processes with the highest potential impact on nanophotonics serving the broadest field of applications while at the same time having a high potential for mass production. Soft UV-Nanoimprint seems to fulfil the requirements and sensitivity of silicon-based resonant photonics with regard to retention of precision and alignment. These criteria are stringent evaluation tools for this new fabrication method and have been verified by AMO and the Institute of Semiconductor Electronics. This made it possible to successfully demonstrate the applicability of low-cost mass-fabrication UV-NIL technology in the emerging field of SOI nanophotonics. The research activities of the project partners are based on the Circles of Light project of the 6th Research Framework Programme (http://www.circlesoflight.de) supported by the European Community under NaPa Contract NMP4-CT-2003-500120 and the Network of Excellence ePIXnet (http://www.epixnet.org). First results have recently been published in IEEE Photonics Technology Letters [1].
