Integrated optical interconnection for polymeric planar lightwave circuit device using roll-to-roll ultraviolet imprint

We propose an integrated structure that combines chip and fiber array blocks for optical interconnection with a polymeric planar lightwave circuit (PLC) device using the roll-to-roll imprint process. The fiber array blocks and PLC chip of the integrated structure are fabricated on the same substrate, and the alignments in the three spatial directions were established with the insertion of an optical fiber. The characteristics of the integrated structure were evaluated by fabricating a 1×2 optical splitter device. The structure had an insertion loss of 3.9 dB, and the optical uniformity of the channel was 0.1 dB, indicating that the same performance for an active alignment can be expected.