CN114935793B - Method for ultraviolet lithography of optical waveguide material and optical waveguide preparation method - Google Patents
Method for ultraviolet lithography of optical waveguide material and optical waveguide preparation method Download PDFInfo
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- CN114935793B CN114935793B CN202210610260.5A CN202210610260A CN114935793B CN 114935793 B CN114935793 B CN 114935793B CN 202210610260 A CN202210610260 A CN 202210610260A CN 114935793 B CN114935793 B CN 114935793B
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- G—PHYSICS
- G02—OPTICS
- G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
- G02B6/00—Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings
- G02B6/10—Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings of the optical waveguide type
- G02B6/12—Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings of the optical waveguide type of the integrated circuit kind
- G02B6/13—Integrated optical circuits characterised by the manufacturing method
- G02B6/136—Integrated optical circuits characterised by the manufacturing method by etching
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- G—PHYSICS
- G02—OPTICS
- G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
- G02B6/00—Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings
- G02B6/10—Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings of the optical waveguide type
- G02B6/12—Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings of the optical waveguide type of the integrated circuit kind
- G02B6/13—Integrated optical circuits characterised by the manufacturing method
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Abstract
A method for ultraviolet lithography of an optical waveguide material and an optical waveguide preparation method, wherein the method comprises the steps of pre-exposing the optical waveguide material to form a semi-solidified thin layer before ultraviolet lithography, and the optical waveguide preparation method based on the pre-exposure comprises the following steps: s1: preparing a lower cladding layer on a substrate; s2: preparing a core layer on the lower cladding layer; s3: pre-exposing the core layer; s4: carrying out ultraviolet lithography on the pre-exposed core layer; s5: developing the core layer after the completion of the lithography to obtain a core layer with a convex structure; s6: an upper cladding layer is prepared on the core layer. The application solves the problem of oxygen polymerization inhibition in the direct ultraviolet lithography process, does not need to provide nitrogen or other inert gas atmosphere in the ultraviolet lithography process, and has simple operation and high preparation efficiency.
Description
Technical Field
The application belongs to the fields of optical communication technology and microelectronics, and particularly relates to a preparation method of an optical waveguide.
Background
With the rapid development of optical fiber communication networks, data centers and supercomputers, the demand for improvement of transmission bandwidth is increasing, and optical interconnection gradually replaces electrical interconnection to realize high-density and high-speed data transmission has become a future development trend. High-speed electrical interconnects suffer from inherent deficiencies of signal delay, attenuation and crosstalk, as well as increased electrical losses, as compared to optical interconnects, which are of great interest in interconnect communications due to numerous advantages (of parallel optical data links), no electromagnetic interference, low power consumption, and low signal loss. The polymer material is widely applied to the preparation of optical waveguides due to the advantages of low cost, good flexibility, good compatibility with various substrates and the like. Acrylic-based photosensitive fluorinated polymers have good optical properties, especially with relatively low material absorption losses in the 1310nm and 1550nm communication bands. The common preparation method for the material is soft lithography and reactive ion etching. For soft lithography, the preparation process includes preparing a master, preparing a PDMS mold, and preparing a waveguide, which typically uses a sharp tool to manually peel off the PDMS mold, which is complex and prone to damage. For reactive ion etching, the equipment is expensive, and the roughness of the side wall is relatively large in the etching process. Compared with the preparation process, the ultraviolet lithography process is relatively simple, but the material can not complete the polymerization reaction under the air atmosphere due to the influence of oxygen inhibition, so that the material optical waveguide can not be prepared by ultraviolet lithography under the conventional air environment.
Disclosure of Invention
The application aims to solve the technical problems that: the application provides an improved ultraviolet lithography process, which aims to solve the problem of oxygen polymerization inhibition, realize the preparation of an optical waveguide based on ultraviolet lithography in an air atmosphere, and simplify the preparation process of the optical waveguide. .
In order to achieve the above purpose, the application adopts the following technical scheme:
a method for ultraviolet photoetching on optical waveguide material includes such steps as pre-exposing optical waveguide adhesive, controlling the intensity and time of pre-exposure to form semi-solidified thin layer on the surface of optical waveguide adhesive, ultraviolet photoetching and developing.
The pre-exposure treatment is to perform large-area and low-energy ultraviolet exposure on the optical waveguide glue in a nitrogen environment.
A method for preparing an optical waveguide based on ultraviolet lithography,
s1: preparing a lower cladding layer on a substrate;
s2: preparing a core layer on the lower cladding layer;
s3: pre-exposing the core layer;
s4: carrying out ultraviolet lithography on the pre-exposed core layer;
s5: developing the core layer after the completion of the lithography to obtain a core layer with a convex structure;
s6: an upper cladding layer is prepared on the core layer.
S3: the pre-exposure treatment process is to perform large-area and low-energy ultraviolet exposure in nitrogen or other inert gas environment, and the surface of the core layer is in an incompletely cured state after the pre-exposure treatment.
S4: and covering a mask on the core layer for ultraviolet lithography.
The upper cladding, the core layer or the lower cladding is subjected to large-area ultraviolet exposure in nitrogen or other inert gas environment after being molded
The preparation of the upper cladding, the core layer or the lower cladding is realized by adopting the processes of spin coating, dip-coating, drawing or a doctor blade method and the like.
And S7, performing overall heat curing.
S1: the lower cladding layer is prepared after the substrate is cleaned, baked and plasma treated.
The principle of the application is as follows: the polymerization reaction rate is slowed down by carrying out large-area low-energy ultraviolet exposure on the core layer, so that a thin layer with high viscosity is formed on the surface of the core layer, and the layer can block the influence of oxygen on the polymerization reaction in the photoetching process, so that the photoetching process can be carried out in air.
Because the application adopts the technical proposal, the application has the following beneficial results:
the application can carry out the ultraviolet lithography process in an air environment by carrying out the large-area pre-exposure treatment on the photo-waveguide glue, does not need to provide nitrogen or other inert gas atmosphere in the ultraviolet lithography process, simplifies the preparation process and improves the preparation efficiency.
Drawings
FIG. 1 is a schematic flow chart of a method for fabricating an optical waveguide according to the present application.
FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of the preparation of a lower cladding layer and a core layer on a substrate.
Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a large area pre-exposure of a core layer.
Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of masked uv lithography of a core layer.
Fig. 5 is a schematic illustration of developing the core layer.
FIG. 6 is a schematic illustration of the preparation of an upper cladding layer on the surface of a core layer.
Detailed Description
The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present application.
Example 1: a method for ultraviolet photoetching on optical waveguide material includes such steps as pre-exposing optical waveguide adhesive, controlling the intensity and time of pre-exposure to form semi-solidified thin layer on the surface of optical waveguide adhesive, ultraviolet photoetching and developing.
The pre-exposure treatment is to perform large-area and low-energy ultraviolet exposure on the optical waveguide glue in a nitrogen environment, and proper ultraviolet curing energy and pre-exposure time can be selected according to the thickness of the optical waveguide glue, and the whole pre-exposure process needs to be performed in nitrogen or other inert gas atmosphere.
Example 2:
the preparation method of the optical waveguide based on ultraviolet lithography comprises the following steps:
step 1: preparing a lower cladding layer on a substrate, and exposing;
step 2: preparing a core layer on the surface of the lower cladding layer;
step 3: pre-exposing the core layer;
step 4: carrying out ultraviolet lithography on the pre-exposed core layer;
step 5: developing the core layer after the lithography;
step 6: an upper cladding layer is prepared on the surface of the core layer and exposed to light.
The step 1, the substrate can be a substrate of a printed circuit board, a glass substrate, a silicon substrate and other materials, a lower cladding layer is prepared on the substrate, and then the lower cladding layer is subjected to large-area ultraviolet exposure and ultraviolet curing under nitrogen or other inert gas environment; the preparation of the polymer lower cladding can be realized by adopting processes such as spin coating, dip-coating, doctor blade method and the like.
And 2, preparing a core layer on the surface of the lower cladding layer, wherein the preparation of the core layer can be realized by adopting processes such as spin coating, dip-coating, drawing, a doctor blade method and the like.
And 3, performing the pre-exposure treatment of the core layer, namely performing large-area and low-energy ultraviolet exposure on the core layer in a nitrogen environment, wherein proper ultraviolet curing energy and pre-exposure time can be selected according to the thickness of the core layer, and the whole pre-exposure process needs to be performed in nitrogen or other inert gas atmosphere.
In the step 4, the photolithography process is performed in a conventional air atmosphere, and a mask-equipped photolithography apparatus, such as a maskless photolithography apparatus or a maskless photolithography apparatus, may be used, and the width of the optical waveguide core is mainly determined by the line width of the mask plate design.
Step 6, preparing an upper cladding layer on the surface of the core layer, and then carrying out large-area ultraviolet exposure and ultraviolet curing on the core layer in a nitrogen or other inert gas environment; the preparation of the upper cladding can be realized by adopting processes such as spin coating, dip-coating, drawing, a doctor blade method and the like; finally, the prepared optical waveguide is thermally cured.
Example 3:
as in fig. 1, steps S101 and S102, a lower cladding layer and a core layer are prepared on a substrate.
In this example, the lower cladding layer was prepared on the substrate FR-4 board of a clean printed circuit board, as shown in FIG. 2. The FR-4 substrate 1 was cleaned by first cleaning in hot acetone and hot alcohol sequentially, wiping with cotton balls to prevent damage to the substrate surface during cleaning, then ultrasonic cleaning in deionized water, finally blow-drying with nitrogen, and baking at 120deg.C for 10min on a heated platen. Before the lower cladding layer 2 is prepared, the substrate is subjected to plasma treatment. And then preparing a lower cladding layer 2 on the FR-4 board 1 after plasma treatment, and carrying out large-area ultraviolet exposure on the lower cladding layer 2 in a nitrogen environment to solidify the lower cladding layer 2. The core layer 3 is then prepared on the lower cladding layer.
In this embodiment, the lower cladding layer and the core layer may be prepared by spin coating, and the thicknesses of the lower cladding layer and the core layer may be controlled by spin coating speed.
In this embodiment, the materials of the lower cladding layer and the core layer are both acrylic negative optical waveguide glue.
Step S103, pre-exposing the core layer.
In this embodiment, the pre-exposure treatment is to perform a large-area, low-energy ultraviolet exposure on the core layer in a nitrogen atmosphere, as shown in fig. 3. A nitrogen-gas-capable uv curing oven 5 is a preferred apparatus, and a timer is used to time the pre-exposure time by inputting the appropriate uv curing energy into the preparation device through the thickness of the core layer. An ultraviolet semi-cured thin layer 4 is prepared.
In this embodiment, the nitrogen in the exposure environment is ensured to be sufficient before pre-exposure.
And step S104, carrying out ultraviolet lithography on the pre-exposed core layer.
In this embodiment, the lithography process may be performed in air, and a schematic diagram of core lithography is shown in fig. 4, with a mask lithography machine being a preferred apparatus. And determining whether the mask plate is a male plate or a female plate according to the characteristics of the selected glue. For example, the prepared photoresist is negative photoresist, the mask plate is determined to be a negative plate, namely, most of the mask plate is opaque, the light is transmitted at the line position of the optical waveguide circuit, the exposed part 6 of the core layer is cured by ultraviolet, and the unexposed part is provided with the pre-exposure layer 4 and the unexposed layer 3.
In this embodiment, the width of the optical waveguide core is mainly determined by the line width of the mask design.
Step S105, developing the core layer after the photolithography is completed.
In this embodiment, a schematic diagram of the developing step is shown in fig. 5. And selecting proper developing solution to develop the unexposed structure, and carefully controlling the developing time in the developing process. For example, acetone and alcohol are sequentially used to develop the unexposed structure for 8 seconds, and finally deionized water is used to clean the developed core layer.
And step S106, preparing an upper cladding layer on the surface of the core layer to prepare the waveguide.
In this example, as shown in fig. 6, an upper cladding layer 7 was prepared on a core layer, and the upper cladding layer was subjected to large-area ultraviolet exposure under a nitrogen atmosphere to cure the upper cladding layer. Finally, the sample was placed on a hot plate and thermally cured.
In this embodiment, the upper cladding material is selected from acrylic negative optical waveguide glue.
In this embodiment, spin coating may be used to prepare the upper cladding layer
The application uses the pre-exposure treatment of the core layer to make the photoetching reaction possible to be carried out in the air environment. Specifically, by exposing the core layer to light with large area and low energy, a thin layer with high viscosity is formed on the surface of the core layer, and the thin layer can prevent the influence of oxygen on polymerization reaction in the photoetching process. The application omits a nitrogen supply device in the photoetching process, and has simple operation.
Claims (8)
1. A method of ultraviolet lithography of an optical waveguide material, comprising: the pre-exposure treatment is to perform ultraviolet exposure on the optical waveguide glue in nitrogen or other inert gas environment, and proper ultraviolet curing energy and pre-exposure time are selected according to the thickness of the optical waveguide glue to form a semi-cured thin layer on the surface of the optical waveguide glue, so that the ultraviolet lithography process can be performed in air, and then ultraviolet lithography and development are performed.
2. The preparation method of the optical waveguide based on ultraviolet lithography is characterized by comprising the following steps:
s1: preparing a lower cladding layer on a substrate;
s2: preparing a core layer on the lower cladding layer;
s3: pre-exposing the core layer, wherein the pre-exposure treatment process is to perform ultraviolet exposure in a nitrogen or other inert gas environment, proper ultraviolet curing energy and pre-exposure time are selected according to the thickness of the core layer, and the surface of the core layer is in an incompletely cured state after the pre-exposure treatment, so that a high-viscosity thin layer is formed;
s4: carrying out ultraviolet lithography on the pre-exposed core layer, wherein the ultraviolet lithography process is carried out in air;
s5: developing the core layer after the completion of the lithography to obtain a core layer with a convex structure;
s6: an upper cladding layer is prepared on the core layer.
3. The method for preparing an optical waveguide based on ultraviolet lithography according to claim 2, wherein in S4: and covering a mask on the core layer for ultraviolet lithography.
4. The method for preparing an optical waveguide based on ultraviolet lithography according to claim 2, wherein: the upper cladding layer or the lower cladding layer is subjected to large-area ultraviolet exposure in nitrogen or other inert gas environment after being molded.
5. The method for preparing the optical waveguide based on ultraviolet lithography according to claim 2, wherein the method comprises the following steps: the preparation of the core layer or the lower cladding layer is realized by adopting a spin coating, dip-coating or doctor blade method process.
6. The method for manufacturing an optical waveguide based on ultraviolet lithography according to any one of claims 2 to 5, wherein: and S7, performing overall heat curing.
7. The method for preparing an optical waveguide based on ultraviolet lithography according to any one of claims 2 to 5, wherein in S1: the lower cladding layer is prepared after the substrate is cleaned, baked and plasma treated.
8. The method for manufacturing an optical waveguide based on ultraviolet lithography according to any one of claims 2 to 5, wherein in S6: the upper cladding is prepared by adopting a spin coating, dip-coating or doctor blade process.
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| US4931380A (en) * | 1985-07-18 | 1990-06-05 | Microsi, Inc. | Pre-exposure method for increased sensitivity in high contrast resist development of positive working diazo ketone photoresist |
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| JP2007155789A (en) * | 2005-11-30 | 2007-06-21 | Fujifilm Corp | Post exposure method and apparatus for improving printing durability of planographic printing plate |
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