Patent ID: 6391515
Filing Date: 2002-05-21
Classification: G02B

Abstract:
A manufacturing process for preparing sol-gel optical waveguides, comprising the steps of:preparing the sol-gel solution, which comprises the sub-steps of: mixing 1 to 10 mols of water and 5 to 50 mols of alcohol to form an alcoholic solution and adjusting the solution to have a pH value smaller than 5, adding to the alcoholic solution 1 to 5 mols of tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) and churning thoroughly; coating a first photoresist layer over a silicon wafer and defining a waveguide domain; filling and sintering the sol-gel solution within the defined waveguide domain; removing the first photoresist layer and forming a buffer layer over the silicon wafer; coating a second photoresist layer over the silicon wafer and the buffer layer and defining a waveguide core layer domain; filling and sintering the sol-gel solution within the defined waveguide core layer domain; removing the second photoresist layer and forming the core layer over the buffer layer; coating a third photoresist layer over the silicon wafer, the buffer layer and the core layer, and defining a waveguide cladding layer domain; filling and sintering the sol-gel solution within the defined waveguide cladding layer domain; and removing the third photoresist layer and forming the cladding layer over the buffer layer and the core layer.