Patent ID: 7295742
Filing Date: 2007-11-13
Classification: G02B,G02F

Abstract:
1. An optical element comprising a waveguide substrate and a base substrate, wherein the waveguide substrate and the base substrate are bonded using a direct bonding technique without the use of any adhesive with each other, a ridge optical waveguide is formed in the waveguide substrate, the ridge optical waveguide being composed of a ridge part obtained by processing a part of the waveguide substrate into a projected form, so that the ridge optical waveguide is made of the same material as a material of the waveguide substrate, throughout an entire region of the ridge optical waveguide, a non-bonding region in which the waveguide substrate and the base substrate are not bonded with each other is provided, the non-bonding region including an entire region defined by projecting a part of the ridge optical waveguide perpendicularly from the waveguide substrate to the base substrate and light is trapped in the optical waveguide due to a difference between a refractive index of the waveguide substrate and a refractive index of the non-bonding region.