CN216526375U

CN216526375U - Apparatus for manufacturing integrated optical waveguide device

Info

Publication number: CN216526375U
Application number: CN202122707433.9U
Authority: CN
Inventors: 楼歆晔; 黄河; 郝芳; 林涛
Original assignee: Shanghai Kunyou Technology Co ltd
Current assignee: Shanghai Kunyou Technology Co ltd
Priority date: 2021-11-05
Filing date: 2021-11-05
Publication date: 2022-05-13
Anticipated expiration: 2031-11-05

Abstract

An integrated optical waveguide device is provided, wherein the integrated optical waveguide device includes an optical waveguide structure portion and a grating structure portion. The manufacturing apparatus includes: a mother board, wherein the mother board has a grating structure to be transferred corresponding to one or more grating structure portions, and the grating structure portion includes a plurality of grating units, wherein the plurality of grating units are respectively arranged periodically along a plurality of first periodic lines, a plurality of second periodic lines and a plurality of third periodic lines to form a whole two-dimensional grating structure, and smaller included angles among the first periodic lines, the second periodic lines and the third periodic lines are all 60 degrees; and a nanometer coining device, wherein the nanometer coining device is used for processing and forming the grating structure part on the optical waveguide structure part by utilizing the motherboard so as to obtain the integrated optical waveguide device.

Description

Apparatus for manufacturing integrated optical waveguide device

Technical Field

The utility model relates to the technical field of augmented reality, in particular to a manufacturing device for manufacturing an integrated optical waveguide device.

Background

The augmented reality technology is used as a technology for seamlessly integrating virtual world information and real world information, and is characterized in that entity information which is difficult to experience in a certain time and space range of the real world originally is overlaid after computer simulation, virtual information is applied to the real world and is perceived by human senses, so that the sense experience beyond reality is achieved, namely a virtual object and a real environment are overlaid on the same picture or space in real time to exist at the same time, and a user obtains the experience of fusion of virtual and reality.

In order to implement an augmented reality display scheme, an optical waveguide technology is generally used at present, a prism or a grating is used to couple light into a waveguide element, then the light beam output by a projector is transmitted by utilizing the total internal reflection of the light in the waveguide element, and finally a plurality of reflecting surfaces or gratings are used to intercept the transmitted light beam to implement the exit pupil expansion of an optical system.

An optical device is disclosed, for example, in patent US6580529, which describes a device structure similar to that shown in fig. 1. As shown in fig. 1, a waveguide 11P is provided with an input grating 12P on one surface thereof, and the input grating 12P can diffract input light provided in a direction orthogonal to the plane of the waveguide 11P via an input projector so that a first diffraction order is coupled into the waveguide 11P. The trapped light may travel within the waveguide 11P towards the second grating 13P by total internal reflection, the grooves of the second grating 13P being oriented at 45 ° with respect to the incident light such that the incident light is one-dimensionally expanded along the length of the second grating 13P. Thereafter, the light diffracted via the second grating 13P turns through 90 °, and its first diffraction order extends within the waveguide 11P towards the third grating 14P; the grooves of the third grating 14P are oriented orthogonal to their incident light, such that light transmitted by the third grating 14P continues within the waveguide 11P by one-dimensional expansion in the direction orthogonal to the grooves of the third grating 14P via total internal reflection, and light diffracted via the third grating 14P is coupled out of the waveguide 11P and towards the viewer. That is, the optical device as shown in fig. 1 may enable a two-dimensional expansion of the input light, wherein the expansion in a first dimension is provided by the second grating 13P and the expansion in a second dimension is provided by the third grating 14P. However, in such an optical device, not only two mutually independent gratings are required to implement two-dimensional expansion of input light, but also two mutually independent gratings are required to implement coupling-in and coupling-out of light respectively, and particularly, each grating needs to be designed and processed separately, which increases the difficulty in processing and manufacturing the waveguide, and the position precision between the three gratings needs to be controlled strictly, resulting in limited display area and low flexibility of the waveguide.

In order to reduce the difficulty of manufacturing waveguides, an improved optical waveguide device is disclosed in patent CN110914724, which describes a waveguide similar to that shown in fig. 2. Specifically, as shown in fig. 2, the optical waveguide device includes an in-coupling diffractive optic IDO and an out-coupling diffractive optic ODO, which may be formed on the same surface or different surfaces of the waveguide 20P, wherein the in-coupling diffractive optic IDO has a grating vector k extending in the X direction for coupling an image light into the waveguide 20P, and the out-coupling diffractive optic ODO has a plurality of grating vectors that are not parallel to the grating vector k for coupling the image light out of the waveguide 20P to be seen by a viewer while expanding the light beam.

However, although the optical waveguide device shown in fig. 2 can simultaneously realize the expanding and exit pupil functions by only one grating, which helps to reduce the difficulty in processing and manufacturing the optical waveguide to some extent, it still needs to separately manufacture two different gratings for the purpose of coupling-in, expanding the pupil and coupling-out, and this optical waveguide device still needs to strictly control the position precision between the in-coupling diffractive optical element IDO and the out-coupling diffractive optical element ODO, and still has the problems of limited display area and low flexibility of the waveguide.

SUMMERY OF THE UTILITY MODEL

An advantage of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for manufacturing an integrated optical waveguide device, which can integrate the functions of coupling-in, expanding pupil, and coupling-out without providing a coupling-in area and a coupling-out area on a waveguide, which are independent from each other, and thus can reduce the manufacturing difficulty and cost.

Another advantage of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for manufacturing an integrated optical waveguide device, wherein the integrated optical waveguide device can be coupled in or out at any position of a two-dimensional grating structure to observe a corresponding virtual image, thereby facilitating flexible use of the integrated optical waveguide device and reducing difficulty of subsequent assembly.

Another advantage of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for manufacturing an integrated optical waveguide device, wherein in an embodiment of the present invention, the integrated optical waveguide device can be mass-processed using only one mother board during manufacturing, which helps to greatly reduce the manufacturing cost of the integrated optical waveguide device.

Another advantage of the present invention is to provide an integrated optical waveguide device manufacturing apparatus, wherein in an embodiment of the present invention, the integrated optical waveguide device does not need to consider a position correspondence relationship between an incoupling grating and an outcoupling grating, or need not consider technical difficulties that may be encountered when the incoupling grating and the outcoupling grating are separately processed, which helps to reduce the manufacturing difficulty of the integrated optical waveguide device.

Another advantage of the present invention is to provide an integrated optical waveguide device manufacturing apparatus in which expensive materials or complicated structures are not required in order to achieve the above objects. The present invention thus succeeds and effectively provides a solution, not only to provide a simple manufacturing device, but also to increase the practicality and reliability of said manufacturing device.

To achieve at least one of the above advantages or other advantages and objects, the present invention provides a manufacturing apparatus for manufacturing an integrated optical waveguide device including an optical waveguide structure portion and a grating structure portion, wherein the manufacturing apparatus includes:

a master plate, wherein the master plate has a grating structure to be transferred corresponding to one or more grating structure portions, and the grating structure portion includes a plurality of grating units, wherein the plurality of grating units are respectively arranged periodically along a plurality of first periodic lines, a plurality of second periodic lines and a plurality of third periodic lines to form a whole two-dimensional grating structure, and smaller included angles among the first periodic lines, the second periodic lines and the third periodic lines are all 60 degrees; and

and the nano imprinting device is used for processing the grating structure part on the optical waveguide structure part by utilizing the motherboard so as to obtain the integrated optical waveguide device.

According to an embodiment of the present application, the two-dimensional grating structure of the grating structure portion is formed by arranging a plurality of grating units in an array, and the plurality of grating units are respectively located at intersections among the first period line, the second period line and the third period line.

According to an embodiment of the present application, the two-dimensional grating structure of the grating structure portion is equivalent to three one-dimensional grating structures respectively parallel to the first periodic line, the second periodic line and the third periodic line.

According to an embodiment of the present application, the manufacturing apparatus further comprises a motherboard manufacturing apparatus, wherein the motherboard manufacturing apparatus comprises a coating mechanism, a dual-beam interference system, and an etching mechanism, wherein the coating mechanism is used for coating photoresist on a surface of a motherboard substrate; the two-beam interference system is used for exposing the photoresist to develop and generate interference fringes, and the etching mechanism is used for etching the photoresist to form the grating structure to be transferred on the surface of the motherboard substrate under the development of the interference fringes.

According to an embodiment of the application, two beam interference system include a laser source, a beam splitter, left speculum, right speculum, left battery of lens and right battery of lens, wherein laser source is used for launching a bundle of ultraviolet laser, wherein the beam splitter is set up in laser source's transmission route for with this bundle of ultraviolet laser divide into about two bundles of light, wherein left side speculum with right speculum is used for reflecting respectively about two bundles of light with turn light path correspondingly, and left battery of lens with right battery of lens is used for expanding correspondingly respectively and the collimation is by two bundles of light about after the reflection, with the surperficial stack interference of this photoetching glue, the exposure is in order to develop out the unanimous periodic fringe pattern of interference fringe.

According to an embodiment of the present application, the motherboard manufacturing apparatus further includes a regulating mechanism, wherein the regulating mechanism is configured to coat the photoresist and the surface of the motherboard substrate with a controllable thickness to regulate the thickness of the photoresist, so that the thickness of the photoresist is not completely consistent, and the regulating mechanism is further configured to regulate exposure amounts of the dual-beam interference system in different areas of the photoresist, so that widths of fringes formed on the photoresist are not completely consistent.

According to an embodiment of the present application, the nanoimprinting apparatus includes a daughter board and a daughter board imprinting mechanism, wherein the daughter board is overmolded by the mother board, and the daughter board has a complementary structure complementary to the grating structure to be transferred on the mother board, and wherein the daughter board imprinting mechanism is configured to imprint, by the daughter board, an uncured grating material applied to the surface of the waveguide substrate, and cure the uncured grating material to form one or more grating structure portions on the surface of the waveguide substrate.

According to an embodiment of the present application, the nanoimprint device further includes a cutting device, wherein the cutting device is configured to cut the waveguide substrate to form one or more optical waveguide structures, so that the optical waveguide structures correspond to the grating structures one to obtain one or more integrated optical waveguide devices.

According to an embodiment of the present application, the nanoimprint device includes a mold, a supporting plate, and a mold imprinting mechanism, wherein the mold is formed by the master plate being overmolded, wherein the mold includes one or more mold cavities and complementary structures complementary to the grating structures to be transferred on the master plate, and the complementary structures are correspondingly disposed on inner walls of the mold cavities, wherein the mold imprinting mechanism is configured to obtain one or more integrated optical waveguide devices by the mold forming the grating structure portion and the optical waveguide structure portion integrally molded on the supporting plate.

According to an embodiment of the present application, the mold imprinting mechanism includes a layout mechanism, a pressing mechanism and a curing mechanism, wherein the layout mechanism is used for laying a liquid resin material on the supporting plane of the supporting plate, wherein the pressing mechanism is used for pressing the mold on the supporting plane of the supporting plate, so as to diffuse the liquid resin material in the mold cavity, wherein the complementary structure of the mold is imprinted on the surface of the liquid resin material to form the grating structure portion, and wherein the curing mechanism is used for curing the liquid resin material, so as to obtain the cured resin material as the integrated optical waveguide device with an integrated structure.

Further objects and advantages of the utility model will be fully apparent from the ensuing description and drawings.

These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following detailed description, the accompanying drawings and the claims.

Drawings

Fig. 1 shows a schematic structural diagram of a conventional optical device.

Fig. 2 shows a schematic structural diagram of a conventional optical waveguide device.

Fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of an integrated optical waveguide device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 4 is a partially enlarged schematic view of the grating structure portion of the integrated optical waveguide device according to the above embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 5 is a schematic top view of the optical path of the integrated optical waveguide device according to the above embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 6 is a schematic side view of the optical path of the integrated optical waveguide device according to the above embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 7 shows a first example of the integrated optical waveguide device according to the above-described embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 8 is a flow chart showing a method of manufacturing the integrated optical waveguide device according to the above first example of the present invention.

Fig. 9A is a flowchart showing a manufacturing step of a mother board in the manufacturing method of the integrated optical waveguide device according to the first example of the present invention.

Fig. 9B shows an example of the motherboard manufacturing step in the method of manufacturing the integrated optical waveguide device according to the above first example of the present invention.

Fig. 10A shows a schematic flow chart of a nanoimprinting step in the method for fabricating an integrated optical waveguide device according to the first example of the utility model.

Fig. 10B shows an example of the nanoimprinting step in the method of manufacturing the integrated optical waveguide device according to the above-described first example of the utility model.

Fig. 11 shows a second example of the integrated optical waveguide device according to the above-described embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 12 is a flow chart showing a method of manufacturing the integrated optical waveguide device according to the above second example of the present invention.

Fig. 13A shows a schematic flow chart of a nanoimprinting step in the method for fabricating an integrated optical waveguide device according to the second example of the utility model.

Fig. 13B shows an example of the nanoimprinting step in the method of manufacturing the integrated optical waveguide device according to the above-described second example of the utility model.

Fig. 14 shows an example of a manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention.

Fig. 15 and 16 show another example of a manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention.

Detailed Description

The following description is presented to disclose the utility model so as to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the utility model. The preferred embodiments in the following description are given by way of example only, and other obvious variations will occur to those skilled in the art. The basic principles of the utility model, as defined in the following description, may be applied to other embodiments, variations, modifications, equivalents, and other technical solutions without departing from the spirit and scope of the utility model.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that in the present disclosure, the terms "longitudinal," "lateral," "upper," "lower," "front," "rear," "left," "right," "vertical," "horizontal," "top," "bottom," "inner," "outer," and the like are used in an orientation or positional relationship indicated in the drawings for ease of description and simplicity of description, and do not indicate or imply that the referenced devices or components must be constructed and operated in a particular orientation and thus are not to be considered limiting.

In the present invention, the terms "a" and "an" in the claims and the description should be understood as meaning "one or more", that is, one element may be one in number in one embodiment, and the element may be more than one in number in another embodiment. The terms "a" and "an" should not be construed as limiting the number unless the number of such elements is explicitly recited as one in the present disclosure, but rather the terms "a" and "an" should not be construed as being limited to only one of the number.

In the description of the present invention, it is to be understood that the terms "first," "second," and the like are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance. In the description of the present invention, it should be noted that, unless explicitly stated or limited otherwise, the terms "connected" and "connected" are to be interpreted broadly, and may be, for example, fixedly connected, detachably connected, or integrally connected; can be mechanically or electrically connected; they may be directly connected or indirectly connected through an intermediate. The specific meanings of the above terms in the present invention can be understood by those skilled in the art according to specific situations.

In the description herein, references to the description of the term "one embodiment," "some embodiments," "an example," "a specific example," or "some examples," etc., mean that a particular feature, structure, material, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment or example is included in at least one embodiment or example of the utility model. In this specification, the schematic representations of the terms used above are not necessarily intended to refer to the same embodiment or example. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, materials, or characteristics described may be combined in any suitable manner in any one or more embodiments or examples. Furthermore, various embodiments or examples and features of different embodiments or examples described in this specification can be combined and combined by one skilled in the art without contradiction.

In recent years, with the rapid development of augmented reality technology, devices or apparatuses capable of realizing augmented reality are becoming more popular and used. However, as shown in fig. 1 and 2, the conventional optical waveguide devices include a strictly defined coupling-in grating and coupling-out grating, and even a turning grating, and especially the gratings have different structural types due to different functional requirements. In fact, the most challenging task in the field of augmented reality optical waveguides is processing of a grating master, and it is very difficult to process different types of gratings onto the same substrate, because the processing of each grating includes steps of spin coating, exposure, etching, development and the like, where the most difficult and costly step is the exposure step, and the exposure step directly determines the quality of the generated grating morphology. In other words, when the optical waveguide needs to use a plurality of different types of gratings, this means a sharp rise in processing cost, and alignment between different blocks of gratings becomes very difficult, and once a processing defect or positional deviation of one block of gratings occurs, the whole optical waveguide becomes a waste product. In addition, once the existing optical waveguide device is formed, the coupling-in area and the coupling-out area in the optical waveguide device are fixed and cannot be changed or exchanged, which results in that the optical machine must project image light at the coupling-in area of the optical waveguide device and fixedly view a virtual image at the coupling-out area of the optical waveguide device, which is not beneficial to subsequent assembly and use, and has poor flexibility, i.e. the same optical waveguide device cannot be adapted to different people or application scenes. Therefore, in order to solve the above problems, referring to fig. 3 to 6, an embodiment of the present invention provides an integrated optical waveguide device, which can integrate the coupling-in, pupil expanding and coupling-out functions of a waveguide, and is easy to process and use.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 3 and 4, the integrated optical waveguide device 1 may include an optical waveguide structure portion 10 and a grating structure portion 20. The optical waveguide structure section 10 serves to transmit image light by means of total internal reflection. The grating structure portion 20 is formed on the optical waveguide structure portion 10, and the grating structure portion 20 includes a plurality of grating units 21, wherein the plurality of grating units 21 are respectively arranged along a plurality of first periodic lines 201, a plurality of second periodic lines 202, and a plurality of third periodic lines 203 to form a whole two-dimensional grating structure 200, and smaller included angles among the first periodic lines 201, the second periodic lines 202, and the third periodic lines 203 are all 60 °. Any portion of the grating structure portion 20 is used to diffract the image light to couple the image light into the optical waveguide structure portion 10, and all portions of the grating structure portion 20 are used to diffract the image light to couple a part of the image light out of the optical waveguide structure portion 10, and to diffusely transmit the other part of the image light in the optical waveguide structure portion 10. It is understood that the first period lines 201 are all straight lines and are parallel to each other, the second period lines 202 are all straight lines and are parallel to each other, and the third period lines 203 are all straight lines and are parallel to each other; and the angles between the first 201, second 202 and third 203 periodic lines necessarily include a smaller angle of 60 ° and a larger angle of 120 °.

It is worth noting that, because this application integrate optical waveguide device 1 only needs to use a monoblock two-dimensional grating structure just can realize the efficiency of coupling-in, expanding pupil and coupling-out, consequently this application integrate optical waveguide device 1 only need carry out photoetching once and just can process into required grating face type, and need not consider the processing degree of difficulty stack of polylith grating and the alignment problem between the grating to reduce optical waveguide device's the processing degree of difficulty and processing cost manyfold. In particular, since the grating structure part 20 of the integrated optical waveguide device 1 of the present application does not strictly define the coupling-in area and the coupling-out area, so that any area of the grating structure part 20 of the integrated optical waveguide device 1 can be coupled and diffused with image light, the integrated optical waveguide device 1 of the present application can arbitrarily adjust the cutting mode of the optical waveguide according to the requirement of practical application, that is, only one grating mother board is needed to meet different requirements, so that the integrated optical waveguide device 1 becomes very flexible in use, and has a high industrial application value.

Preferably, as shown in fig. 4, the two-dimensional grating structure 200 may be formed by arranging a plurality of grating units 21 in an array, and the plurality of grating units 21 are respectively located at intersections among the first periodic lines 201, the second periodic lines 202, and the third periodic lines 203. It is understood that the first periodic line 201, the second periodic line 202, and the third periodic line 203 are central connecting lines between the grating units 21 arranged in an array along the same periodic direction.

More specifically, as shown in fig. 4 to fig. 6, the integrated optical waveguide device 1 has only one integrated two-dimensional grating structure 200, that is, the two-dimensional grating structure 200 in the integrated optical waveguide device 1 is both an incoupling grating and an outcoupling grating, so that the two-dimensional grating structure 200 has the effects of incoupling, pupil expanding and outcoupling. In fact, the two-dimensional grating structure 200 of the grating structure section 20 may be equivalent to three one-dimensional grating structures H1, H2, H3 respectively parallel to the first periodic line 201, the second periodic line 202, and the third periodic line 203, such as shown in the figureWhen image light is incident on the two-dimensional grating structure 200, the image light is diffracted by the three equivalent one-dimensional grating structures H1, H2, and H3 to generate diffracted light of many orders, wherein the image light can be totally reflected in the optical waveguide structure section 10 and the downward-propagating light beam of the order is mainly diffracted toward the light beam of the order H1/T directly below (e.g., perpendicular to the first period line 201)₊₁And diffracted lower-left (e.g., perpendicular to the second periodic line 202) order beam H2/T₊₁And a light beam H3/T of the order diffracted to the lower right (e.g. in a direction perpendicular to the third periodic lines 203)₊₁. When these secondary light beams encounter the grating units 21 of the two-dimensional grating structure 200 again after total internal reflection, a small part of the secondary light beams is directly coupled out of the optical waveguide structure 10, a large part of the secondary light beams continues to propagate along the original path by total internal reflection, and the other part of the secondary light beams is diffused in two directions of 60 degrees left and right relative to the original path, so that the light beams are coupled out while being diffused all around, and finally the light beams can almost cover the whole area where the two-dimensional grating structure 200 is located.

It can be understood that, just because this application integrate optical waveguide device 1 arbitrary position in grating structure portion 20 can both regard as the coupling position, consequently disposes in the equipment when integrating the augmented reality equipment of optical waveguide device 1, the ray apparatus of augmented reality equipment for it is more nimble to integrate the position of optical waveguide device 1, is convenient for reduce the equipment precision and the degree of difficulty of augmented reality equipment.

It is worth mentioning because this application integrate among the optical waveguide device 1 grating structure portion 20 is a monoblock two-dimensional grating structure 200, and the optional position of grating structure portion 20 can both regard as coupling position or coupling position, consequently is making only need make a mother board when integrating optical waveguide device 1, carry out the nanoimprint just can process the formation grating structure portion 20, and then cut as required and just can process various not unidimensional in batches integrate optical waveguide device 1, this has greatly reduced integrate optical waveguide device 1's the manufacturing degree of difficulty and manufacturing cost.

Illustratively, according to the first example of the present application, as shown in fig. 7, the optical waveguide structure portion 10 of the integrated optical waveguide device 1 may be, but is not limited to be, implemented as a waveguide substrate 11, and the two-dimensional grating structure 200 of the grating structure portion 20 is processed to be formed on the surface of the waveguide substrate 11. It is to be noted that the grating unit 21 of the grating structure portion 20 may be formed convexly or concavely on the surface of the waveguide substrate 11. In addition, the grating units 21 of the grating structure portion 20 may have, but are not limited to, regular shapes such as a cylinder, a prism, an elliptic cylinder, a cone, and other irregular shapes, which will not be described in detail herein.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 8 to 10B, the method for manufacturing the integrated optical waveguide device 1 of the present application may include the steps of:

s100: manufacturing a master plate 31, wherein the master plate 31 has a grating structure 313 to be transferred corresponding to one or more grating structure portions 20, and the grating structure portion 20 includes a plurality of grating units 21, wherein the plurality of grating units 21 are respectively arranged periodically along a plurality of first periodic lines 201, a plurality of second periodic lines 202, and a plurality of third periodic lines 203 to form a whole two-dimensional grating structure 200, and smaller included angles among the first periodic lines 201, the second periodic lines 202, and the third periodic lines 203 are all 60 °;

s200: processing the one or more grating structure portions 20 on the surface of the waveguide substrate 11 by using the master 31 through a nanoimprint method; and

s300: the waveguide substrate 11 is cut to form one or more optical waveguide structures 10, so that the optical waveguide structures 10 correspond to the grating structures 20 one to obtain one or more integrated optical waveguide devices 1.

More specifically, according to the above-mentioned embodiment of the present application, in the step S100 of the manufacturing method of the integrated optical waveguide device 1, the motherboard 31 may be fabricated by using an etching method. For example, the etching process may include, but is not limited to, laser direct writing, electron beam direct writing, mask lithography, and two-beam interference exposure, among others.

It is noted that, considering that the period of the grating used in the optical waveguide device for augmented reality is typically 300nm to 500nm, and in order to precisely control the surface profile of the grating during the processing, the minimum processing line width used in processing the two-dimensional grating structure 200 is typically an order of magnitude smaller than the grating period, such as 30nm to 50 nm. Conventional grating processing methods have more or less some drawbacks or problems and are not suitable for processing the two-dimensional grating structure 200 of the present application. For example, the conventional diamond scribing method is only suitable for processing one-dimensional gratings, is difficult to modulate the gratings, has a relatively slow scribing speed and a long processing time, and has extremely strict requirements on working environments such as temperature, humidity, pressure, vibration and the like, that is, the grating scribing precision can be lost due to the existence of tiny environmental disturbance; the conventional laser direct writing method is to process by exposing photoresist by focused laser beams, but because the focused laser beams are limited by diffraction limit, the minimum processing linewidth is about 300nm, only micron-sized gratings can be processed, and the processing is difficult to meet the period requirement of the two-dimensional grating structure 200; the conventional electron beam lithography method exposes the photoresist by focusing an electron beam, although the method can break through the diffraction limit to process a nano-scale structure, the processing speed is very low, for example, a sub-wavelength grating with the magnitude of ten square centimeters needs to be continuously written for more than one week, and the requirements on the environment and the equipment stability are very strict; the conventional mask photoetching method is to process a mask plate firstly and then project the graph of the mask plate on a photoresist by using a photoetching machine for exposure to process a micro structure, but the mold opening cost of the processing method is high, and the processing cost is continuously improved along with the improvement of the precision of the photoetching machine, for example, the processing cost below the hundred-nanometer line width can be in the level of dozens of even millions of people once.

In order to process the two-dimensional grating structure 200 of the present application, the present application is based on the characteristics of the two-dimensional grating structure 200, such as small period (e.g. grating period of 300nm to 500nm), high requirement for period stability (e.g. grating period variation less than 1nm in the range of 20 × 20 mm), and the like, and considering the cost comprehensively, therefore, the manufacturing method of the integrated optical waveguide device 1 preferably adopts a two-beam interference exposure method to manufacture the master 31.

Illustratively, as shown in fig. 9A and 9B, the step S100 of the method for manufacturing the integrated optical waveguide device 1 may include the steps of:

s110: coating photoresist 311 on the surface of a motherboard substrate 312;

s120: exposing the photoresist 311 to develop interference fringes by a two-beam interference system 40; and

s130: under the development of the interference fringes, the photoresist 311 is etched to form the grating structure 313 to be transferred on the surface of the motherboard substrate 312.

It should be noted that, as shown in fig. 9B, the dual-beam interference system 40 generally includes a laser source 41, a beam splitter 42, a left reflector 43, a right reflector 44, a left lens group 45 and a right lens group 46, wherein the laser source 41 is configured to emit a beam of uv laser, the beam splitter 42 is disposed in an emission path of the laser source 41 and is configured to split the beam of uv laser into two left and right beams, the left reflector 43 and the right reflector 44 are configured to respectively reflect the two left and right beams to turn an optical path, and the left lens group 45 and the right lens group 46 are configured to respectively expand and collimate the two reflected left and right beams to superpose interference on the surface of the photoresist 311 and expose to develop a periodic fringe pattern of interference fringes.

In addition, because the fringe period P generated after the two-beam interference system 40 exposes and develops on the photoresist is directly related to the included angle θ between the two beams, i.e. P ═ n λ/(2sin θ), where λ is the laser wavelength, n is the refractive index of the photoresist, and the width D of the fringe is mainly determined by the exposure amount of the photoresist, where the exposure amount is controlled by the intensities and exposure times of the two beams, the manufacturing method of the integrated optical waveguide device 1 in the present application can form a grating with a very high uniformity of exposure period on the large-area photoresist through the two-beam interference system 40, and particularly meets the requirement of the grating period in the augmented reality technology.

However, since the photoresist is usually exposed simultaneously, so that the width of the stripe formed on the photoresist is increased or decreased simultaneously with the change of the exposure, which is not favorable for the uniformity of the augmented reality display, in order to improve the uniformity of the augmented reality display, it is necessary to modulate the grating efficiency, that is, modulate the line width and depth (or height) of the two-dimensional grating structure 200, and modulate the line width by adjusting and controlling the exposure of different regions, and modulate the depth by adjusting and controlling the thickness of the photoresist or the etching duration of different regions.

Preferably, in the step S110 of the method for manufacturing the integrated optical waveguide device 1:

the photoresist 311 is coated on the surface of the motherboard substrate 312 with a controllable thickness to control the thickness of the photoresist 311, so that the thickness of the photoresist may not be completely uniform. It will be appreciated that the thickness of the photoresist is uniform in some regions and not in some regions.

More preferably, in the step S130 of the method for manufacturing the integrated optical waveguide device 1:

the exposure of the two-beam interference system 40 at different regions of the photoresist 312 is controlled so that the width of the fringes formed on the photoresist 312 may not be completely uniform. It will be appreciated that the stripe width on the photoresist may be uniform in some regions and non-uniform in some regions.

According to the above-mentioned embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 10A and 10B, the step S200 of the method for manufacturing the integrated optical waveguide device 1 may include the steps of:

s210: over-molding a daughter board 32 by the mother board 31, wherein the daughter board 32 has a complementary structure 321 complementary to the grating structure 313 to be transferred on the mother board 31;

s220: applying an uncured grating material 12 to the surface of the waveguide substrate 11; and

s230: the uncured grating material 12 is imprinted by the daughter board 32, and the uncured grating material 12 is cured to form the grating structure 20 on the surface of the waveguide substrate 11.

Notably, the uncured grating material 12 may be a resin material, such as an ultraviolet light curable resin material or a heat curable resin material, and the like. In step S230, the uncured grating material may be cured by ultraviolet irradiation or heating to mold the grating structure portion 20.

It is to be noted that, according to the second example of the present application, as shown in fig. 11 to 13B, the two-dimensional grating structure 200 of the grating structure portion 20 is integrally molded with the optical waveguide structure portion 10, so that the integrated optical waveguide device 1 has an integral structure.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 12 to 13B, the method for manufacturing the integrated optical waveguide device 1 of the present application may include the steps of:

s100': manufacturing a master plate 31, wherein the master plate 31 has a grating structure 313 corresponding to one or more grating structure portions 20 to be transferred, and the grating structure portion 20 includes a plurality of grating units 21, wherein the plurality of grating units 21 are respectively arranged along a plurality of first periodic lines 201, a plurality of second periodic lines 202, and a plurality of third periodic lines 203 to form a whole two-dimensional grating structure 200, wherein angles between the first periodic lines 201, the second periodic lines 202, and the third periodic lines 203 are all 60 °;

s200': performing over-molding on the mother substrate 31 to form a mold 33, wherein the mold 33 includes one or more mold cavities 331 and complementary structures 332 complementary to the grating structures to be transferred on the mother substrate 31, and the complementary structures 332 are correspondingly disposed on the inner walls of the mold cavities 331; and

s300': the grating structure portion 20 and the optical waveguide structure portion 10 are integrally formed on a support plate 34 by a nanoimprint method using the mold 33 to obtain one or more integrated optical waveguide devices 1.

More specifically, as shown in fig. 13A and 13B, the step S300' of the method for manufacturing the integrated optical waveguide device 1 may include the steps of:

and S310': disposing a liquid resin material on the support plane 340 of the support plate 34;

s320': pressing the mold 33 onto the supporting plane 340 of the supporting plate 34 to diffuse the liquid resin material in the mold cavity 331, wherein the complementary structure 332 of the mold 33 imprints on the surface of the liquid resin material to form the grating structure 20; and

s330': the liquid resin material is subjected to a curing process to obtain the cured resin material as the integrated optical waveguide device 1 having an integrated structure.

It should be noted that the liquid resin material may be, but is not limited to, a photo-curable liquid resin material, so as to have high toughness and stability after photo-curing and be not easily broken. Of course, in other examples of the present application, the liquid resin material may also be implemented as a thermosetting liquid resin material or a cold-curing liquid resin material, and the details thereof are not described herein again.

According to another aspect of the present application, as shown in fig. 14 to 16, the present application further provides a manufacturing apparatus for manufacturing the integrated optical waveguide device 1 described above, wherein the integrated optical waveguide device 1 includes the optical waveguide structure portion 10 and the grating structure portion 20. Specifically, as shown in fig. 14 and 15, the manufacturing apparatus may include a master 31 and a nanoimprinting apparatus 7, wherein the master 31 has a grating structure 313 to be transferred corresponding to one or more grating structure portions 20, and the grating structure portion 20 includes a plurality of grating units 21, wherein the grating units 21 are periodically arranged along a plurality of first periodic lines 201, a plurality of second periodic lines 202, and a plurality of third periodic lines 203, respectively, to form a one-piece two-dimensional grating structure 200, wherein angles between the first periodic lines 201, the second periodic lines 202, and the third periodic lines 203 are all 60 °; the nanoimprint lithography apparatus 7 is configured to form the grating structure portion 20 on the optical waveguide structure portion 10 by using the motherboard 31, so as to obtain the integrated optical waveguide device 1.

More specifically, as shown in fig. 14 and 15, the manufacturing apparatus of the present application further includes a motherboard manufacturing apparatus 3, wherein the motherboard manufacturing apparatus 3 includes a coating mechanism 30, a dual-beam interference system 40, and an etching mechanism 50, wherein the coating mechanism 30 is used for coating a photoresist 311 on a surface of a motherboard substrate 312; wherein the two-beam interference system 40 is configured to expose the photoresist 311 to develop to generate interference fringes, and the etching mechanism 50 is configured to etch the photoresist 311 under the development of the interference fringes to form the grating structure 313 to be transferred on the surface of the motherboard substrate 312.

Exemplarily, as shown in fig. 9B, the dual-beam interference system 40 includes a laser source 41, a beam splitter 42, a left reflector 43, a right reflector 44, a left lens group 45, and a right lens group 46, wherein the laser source 41 is configured to emit a beam of uv laser, wherein the beam splitter 42 is disposed in an emission path of the laser source 41 and is configured to split the beam of uv laser into two left and right beams, wherein the left reflector 43 and the right reflector 44 are configured to respectively reflect the two left and right beams to turn an optical path, and the left lens group 45 and the right lens group 46 are configured to respectively expand and collimate the two reflected left and right beams to overlap and interfere on a surface of the photoresist 311, and are exposed to develop a periodic fringe pattern with uniform interference fringes.

The master manufacturing apparatus 3 further comprises a regulating mechanism 60, wherein the regulating mechanism 60 is used for coating the photoresist 311 and the surface of the master substrate 312 with a controllable thickness to regulate the thickness of the photoresist 311 so that the thickness of the photoresist 311 is not completely consistent.

In addition, by adjusting the exposure of the two-beam interference system 40 in different areas of the photoresist 311, such as adjusting the exposure pattern, the width of the fringes formed on the photoresist 311 may not be completely uniform. The depth of the photoresist 311 can be varied by adjusting the etching depth.

It is worth mentioning that, in an example of the present application, as shown in fig. 14, the nanoimprinting device 7 may include a daughter board 32 and a daughter board imprinting mechanism 71, wherein the daughter board 32 is overmolded by the mother board 31, and the daughter board 32 has a complementary structure 321 complementary to the grating structure 313 to be transferred on the mother board 31, wherein the daughter board imprinting mechanism 71 is configured to imprint, through the daughter board 32, the uncured grating material applied on the surface of the waveguide substrate 11, and cure the uncured grating material to form one or more grating structure portions 20 on the surface of the waveguide substrate 11.

In the above example of the present application, as shown in fig. 14, the nanoimprinting apparatus 7 further includes a cutting apparatus 72, wherein the cutting apparatus 72 is used for cutting the waveguide substrate 11 to form one or more optical waveguide structure portions 10, so that the optical waveguide structure portions 10 and the grating structure portions 20 are in one-to-one correspondence to obtain one or more integrated optical waveguide devices 1.

In another example of the present application, as shown in fig. 15, the nanoimprinting apparatus 7 may also include a mold 33, a supporting plate 34, and a mold imprinting mechanism 73, wherein the mold 33 is formed by overmolding the motherboard 31, the mold 33 includes one or more mold cavities 331 and complementary structures 332 complementary to the grating structures 313 to be transferred on the motherboard 31, and the complementary structures 332 are correspondingly disposed on the inner walls of the mold cavities 331, wherein the mold imprinting mechanism 73 is configured to form the grating structure portion 20 and the optical waveguide structure portion 10 integrally formed on the supporting plate 34 by the mold 33 to obtain one or more integrated optical waveguide devices 1.

In the above example of the present application, as shown in fig. 16, the mold pressing mechanism 73 includes a disposing mechanism 731, a pressing mechanism 732, and a curing mechanism 733, wherein the disposing mechanism 731 is configured to dispose a liquid resin material on the supporting plane 340 of the supporting plate 34, wherein the pressing mechanism 732 is configured to press the mold 33 on the supporting plane 340 of the supporting plate 34, so as to diffuse the liquid resin material in the mold cavity 331, wherein the complementary structure 332 of the mold 33 imprints the liquid resin material on the surface to form the grating structure portion 20, and wherein the curing mechanism 733 is configured to perform a curing process on the liquid resin material, so as to obtain the cured resin material as the integrated optical waveguide device 1 having an integrated structure.

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the embodiments of the utility model described above and shown in the drawings are given by way of example only and are not limiting of the utility model. The objects of the utility model have been fully and effectively accomplished. The functional and structural principles of the present invention have been shown and described in the examples, and any variations or modifications of the embodiments of the present invention may be made without departing from the principles.

Claims

1. Integrated optical waveguide device's manufacturing installation, wherein this integrated optical waveguide device includes an optical waveguide structure portion and a grating structure portion, its characterized in that, wherein manufacturing installation includes:

2. The manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the two-dimensional grating structure of the grating structure portion is formed by arranging a plurality of grating units in an array, and the plurality of grating units are respectively located at intersections between the first periodic lines, the second periodic lines, and the third periodic lines.

3. The manufacturing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the two-dimensional grating structure of the grating structure portion is equivalent to three one-dimensional grating structures respectively parallel to the first periodic line, the second periodic line, and the third periodic line.

4. The manufacturing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising a master manufacturing apparatus, wherein the master manufacturing apparatus comprises a coating mechanism for coating a surface of a master substrate with photoresist, a dual beam interference system, and an etching mechanism; the two-beam interference system is used for exposing the photoresist to develop and generate interference fringes, and the etching mechanism is used for etching the photoresist to form the grating structure to be transferred on the surface of the motherboard substrate under the development of the interference fringes.

5. The manufacturing apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the dual-beam interference system comprises a laser source, a beam splitter for emitting a beam of uv laser, a left reflector, a right reflector, a left lens set and a right lens set, wherein the beam splitter is disposed in an emission path of the laser source for splitting the beam of uv laser into left and right beams, wherein the left reflector and the right reflector are respectively and correspondingly configured to reflect the left and right beams to bend an optical path, and the left lens set and the right lens set are respectively and correspondingly configured to expand and collimate the reflected left and right beams to superpose and interfere on a surface of the photoresist, and expose the photoresist to develop a periodic fringe pattern with uniform interference fringes.

6. The manufacturing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the master manufacturing apparatus further comprises a control mechanism, wherein the control mechanism is configured to apply the photoresist and the surface of the master substrate with a controllable thickness to control the thickness of the photoresist so that the thickness of the photoresist is not completely uniform, and the control mechanism is further configured to control the exposure amount of the dual-beam interference system in different regions of the photoresist so that the widths of the fringes formed on the photoresist are not completely uniform.

7. The manufacturing apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein said nanoimprinting device includes a daughter board overmolded by said mother board and having a complementary structure complementary to said grating structure to be transferred on said mother board, and a daughter board imprinting mechanism for imprinting uncured grating material applied to the surface of the waveguide substrate by said daughter board and curing the uncured grating material to form one or more of said grating structure portions on the surface of the waveguide substrate.

8. The manufacturing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the nanoimprint apparatus further comprises a cutting device for cutting the waveguide substrate to form one or more optical waveguide structures, so that the optical waveguide structures correspond to the grating structures one to obtain one or more integrated optical waveguide devices.

9. The manufacturing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the nanoimprinting apparatus comprises a mold, a support plate, and a mold imprinting mechanism, wherein the mold is formed by overmolding the mother plate, wherein the mold comprises one or more mold cavities and complementary structures complementary to the grating structures to be transferred on the mother plate, and the complementary structures are correspondingly disposed on inner walls of the mold cavities, and wherein the mold imprinting mechanism is configured to obtain one or more integrated optical waveguide devices by forming the grating structure portions and the optical waveguide structure portions integrally molded on the support plate by the mold.

10. The manufacturing apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein the mold pressing mechanism includes a disposing mechanism, a pressing mechanism and a curing mechanism, wherein the disposing mechanism is configured to dispose a liquid resin material on the supporting plane of the supporting plate, wherein the pressing mechanism is configured to press the mold on the supporting plane of the supporting plate to diffuse the liquid resin material in the mold cavity, wherein the complementary structure of the mold presses the grating structure portion on the surface of the liquid resin material, and wherein the curing mechanism is configured to cure the liquid resin material to obtain the cured resin material as the integrated optical waveguide device with an integrated structure.