JP2001264559A - Polymer optical integrated circuit light source and method of manufacturing the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a polymer optical integrated circuit light source which is highly flexible, small in size, lightweight, low-cost and of high efficiency. SOLUTION: A light emitting device formed on a polymer optical waveguide substrate and having a light emitting layer consisting of an organic functional conductive thin film interposed between a transparent electrode and a counter electrode is used as the polymer optical integrated circuit light source. The organic functional conductive thin film consists of a plurality of organic molecules dispersed in a polymer material. As for the polymer material, a polymer having a carbazole group is used, and the molecules to be disposed to obtain emission of red light have a porphin ring. Because the composite polymer aggregate can be dissolved in a solvent to prepare the material in a solution state, the polymer can be made into a thin film by a spin coat method in air in the process of forming the thin film of the polymer. Thereby, the polymer optical integrated circuit light source which is highly flexible, small in size, lightweight, low-cost and of high efficiency can be easily mass produced in a short time.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a small and lightweight light source having excellent flexibility and used for an optical information processing circuit, and a method of manufacturing the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, IT (Information T
2. Description of the Related Art As the revolution progresses rapidly, optical information processing circuits are required everywhere. Among them, highly flexible, compact, lightweight, high-performance light emitting and receiving elements are highly demanded as one of the component parts of the optical information processing circuit. Conventionally, such component development has the following problems, and has been difficult to develop.

[0003] A conventional optical circuit is formed of a quartz-based material formed on a silicon substrate and has no flexibility. Further, the active element incorporated in the optical waveguide circuit is formed of an inorganic semiconductor, and a substrate that can withstand high temperatures is required to manufacture the active element while heating the substrate.

Recently, polymer optical waveguide films have been proposed as flexible optical circuits (Hikita: “Organic Optical Waveguide Devices”, Journal of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, Vol. 8).
1, No. 1, pp. 37-40 (1998)). However, since a semiconductor element having an active element function is usually formed at a high temperature, it is difficult to directly fabricate the semiconductor element on a flexible polymer optical waveguide.

In order to solve this problem, an electric-optical conversion function is provided on a flexible polymer optical waveguide,
In addition, attempts have been made to produce a polymer optical waveguide film having a light emitting / receiving function formed of an organic thin film that can be formed at a low temperature (Y. Ohmori, H. Ueta, Y. Ku).
rosaka, M .; Hikita and K.S. Yos
hino, “Organic EL diode wi
th waveguide devices ", Non
linear Optics, vol. 22, pp. 4
61-464 (1999)). In such a device, it is important that light emission at the functional organic thin film portion directly contributing to light emission is highly efficient. Conventionally, methods of increasing the luminous efficiency by dispersing molecules having an electro-optical conversion function in other organic molecules have been studied.
It was formed by a vapor deposition method. The vapor deposition method is excellent as a method for forming a thin film, but since a vacuum device is used, it takes a long time to evacuate and the device itself is expensive. There was a problem that it was not suitable.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a flexible, compact, lightweight, low-cost, high-efficiency polymer optical integrated circuit light source.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a polymer optical integrated circuit light source according to the present invention comprises a polymer optical waveguide having a mirror structure as a substrate, and a transparent light-emitting device provided on the substrate and above the mirror structure. An electrode, an organic thin film layer formed from an aggregate formed by mixing a molecule having at least one porphine ring, one or more molecular solids in a polymer material having a carbazole group, and a counter electrode. And a light-emitting element comprising: Also,
Preferably, the organic thin film layer contains polyvinyl carbazole as a polymer material having a carbazole group, and 5, 10, 15, 20 t as a molecule having a porphine ring.
ethaphenyl-21H, 23H-porphi
ne (TPP) molecule, and 4- (di)
cyano methylene) -2-methyl
-6- (p-dimethyl aminostyry
1) It is characterized by containing a -4H-pyran (DCM) molecule.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of manufacturing a light source for a polymer optical integrated circuit, comprising: forming a transparent electrode on a polymer optical waveguide having a mirror structure on the mirror structure; Above, in a polymer material having a carbazole group, in addition to a molecule having at least one porphine ring, an aggregate formed by mixing one or more molecular solids is dissolved in a solvent to form a solution,
An organic thin film layer having a light emitting function is laminated by a spin coating method, and a counter electrode is formed on the organic thin film layer. Also preferably, the aggregate comprises polyvinyl carbazole and 5,10,15,20 tetraphe
nyl-21H, 23H-porfine (TPP)
Molecules and 4- (dicyano methylene)-
2-methyl-6- (p-dimethyl am
(inostyryl) -4H-pyran (DCM) molecules are mixed at a molar ratio of 90: 1: 9.

That is, the present invention relates to a light-emitting element in which a light-emitting layer sandwiched between a transparent electrode and a counter electrode formed on a polymer optical waveguide substrate is formed of an organic functional conductive thin film as a polymer optical integrated circuit light source. The organic functional conductive thin film is composed of a plurality of organic molecules dispersed in a polymer material, and a polymer having a carbazole group is used as the polymer material and dispersed to obtain red light emission. The molecule to be formed is a molecule having a porphine ring, and this complex polymer assembly can be dissolved in a solvent to form a solution. Without using it, a thin film can be formed by spin coating in air. For this reason, since it can be manufactured in a short time and simply, it is possible to manufacture a large amount of a flexible, compact, lightweight, inexpensive and highly efficient polymer optical integrated circuit light source.

[0010]

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the structure of a polymer optical integrated circuit light source according to the present invention. FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view as viewed from a direction perpendicular to a polymer optical waveguide used as a substrate.
Is the core of the polymer optical waveguide, 3 is the upper cladding of the polymer optical waveguide, 4 is the mirror structure of the polymer optical waveguide,
5 is an aluminum coating film, 6 is a center line of the core portion 2 of the optical waveguide, 7 is a center line of the light emitting element and the mirror structure, 8 is a transparent electrode (lower electrode) of the light emitting element, 9 is an organic thin film layer of the light emitting element,
Reference numeral 10 denotes a counter electrode (upper electrode) of the light emitting element, a denotes the thickness of the upper cladding layer 3, b denotes the thickness of the waveguide core portion 2, and c denotes the thickness of the lower cladding portion 1.

A transparent electrode material is deposited on the polymer optical waveguide by a vapor deposition method, a sputtering method, or the like, and is patterned by a fine processing technique to form a transparent electrode 8 on the mirror structure 4. An organic thin film layer 9 having a light emitting function is formed thereon by a spin coating method. As the organic thin film layer, 5,1 having a porphine ring in polyvinyl carbazole is used.
0,15,20 tetraphenyl-21H, 2
3H-porfine (TPP) molecule, and 4- (di
cyano methylene) -2-methyl
-6- (p-dimethyl aminostyry
1) Disperse -4H-pyran (DCM) molecules, select an appropriate molar concentration ratio, dissolve the mixed molecules in a chloroform solution, and prepare a thin film by spin coating. At this time, if the concentration of DCM is set to 30% or more, TP
Light emission from DCM molecules other than P molecules is also obtained. When the molar concentration ratio of polyvinyl carbazole, TPP molecule having a porphine ring and DCM molecule is 90: 1 to 9: 1, T
The light emission intensity from PP is the strongest, and the light emission from TPP molecules is at least one order of magnitude stronger when adding DCM molecules than when adding only TPP molecules to polyvinyl carbazole. Since the above mixed polymer can be dissolved in a chloroform solution, spin coating is possible.

Next, a polymer optical integrated circuit light source having a light emitting function can be manufactured by forming an alloy of magnesium and silver on the organic film by a vapor deposition method as the counter electrode 10. Similar results can be obtained by forming a film by spin coating using polyalkylthiophene instead of polyvinylcarbazole and using chloroform as a solvent.

The light emitted from the organic thin film layer 9 is reflected by the mirror structure 4 of the polymer optical waveguide, guided to the core 2 of the polymer optical waveguide, and transmitted through the core 2 of the optical waveguide. Emanated from. In the mirror structure according to the present embodiment, the boundary between the core portion 2 of the polymer optical waveguide and the aluminum coat layer 5 is inclined at 45 degrees,
The light emitted from the light emitting element formed on the upper part of the mirror structure by the fine processing technique is reflected by the mirror structure 4 and guided to the core 2 with high efficiency.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to embodiments.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS This embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. In the polymer optical waveguide used for the substrate, the lower cladding part 1 and the upper cladding part 3 are made of an ultraviolet curing epoxy resin, and the core part 2 of the optical waveguide is made of deuterated methacrylate. The thickness a of the upper cladding part 3 is 15 μm,
Is 40 μm, and the thickness c of the lower cladding 1 is 65 μm.
μm. The core 2 has a square cross section of 40 μm square. One of the end faces of the polymer optical waveguide is processed to be inclined at 45 degrees, and the aluminum coat film 5 is formed by a vapor deposition method.
Is coated with a thickness of 200 nm.

On this polymer optical waveguide substrate, a 200 nm-thick ITO (I
An ndium-Tin-Oxide (indium tin oxide) thin film was formed and patterned by photography and etching using argon ion milling to form a transparent electrode 8.

Next, 5,10,15,20 tetraphenyl having a porphine ring in polyvinyl carbazole.
enyl-21H, 23H-porfine (TP
P) molecule, and 4- (dicyano methylen)
e) -2-methyl-6- (p-dimethyl)
aminostyryl) -4H-pyran (DC
M) The molecules are dispersed and mixed in a molar concentration ratio of 90: 1 to 9 and the mixed molecules are added to a chloroform solution in an amount of 0.1 m per carbazole group relative to the solvent chloroform.
ol / L (mol / liter), and the substrate was rotated at 500 rpm for 5 seconds and then at 1500 rpm for 20 seconds by spin coating to form a 100 nm thick film on the polymer optical waveguide substrate. An organic thin film layer 9 was obtained.

Next, a counter electrode 10 is deposited on the organic film to a thickness of 200 nm by vapor deposition of an alloy of magnesium and silver.
A polymer optical integrated circuit light source with a light emitting function was fabricated by patterning by photography and etching using argon ion milling. In addition,
The reactive ion etching of oxygen was used for etching the organic thin film layer 9.

In the polymer optical integrated circuit light source having a light emitting function of the present invention, a voltage of 5 V is applied between both electrodes such that the transparent electrode (lower electrode) 8 has a positive potential and the counter electrode (upper electrode) 10 has a negative potential. Was applied, red light with a wavelength of 620 nm was emitted only from the organic thin film layer 9. With respect to this light emission, characteristics such as intensity without color were obtained as compared with those obtained by the vacuum evaporation method.

[0020]

An advantage of the present invention is to provide a light source used for an optical integrated circuit having flexibility by a simple manufacturing process and a manufacturing method thereof. Since this optical integrated circuit is a flexible circuit, it can provide lightweight, highly processable circuit components at low cost by being applied to portable equipment, and its market scale is immeasurable because it is a general-purpose component. Not so big.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a view showing one embodiment of a configuration of a polymer optical integrated circuit light source according to the present invention, and is a cross-sectional view seen from a direction parallel to a waveguide.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Lower clad part of polymer optical waveguide 2 Core part of polymer optical waveguide 3 Upper clad part of polymer optical waveguide 4 Mirror structure of polymer optical waveguide 5 Second clad part of polymer optical waveguide 6 Center line of core part of polymer optical waveguide 7 Center line of light emitting element and mirror structure 8 Transparent electrode (lower electrode) of light emitting element 9 Organic thin film layer of light emitting element 10 Counter electrode (upper electrode) of light emitting element a Thickness of upper clad part b Thickness of core part c Lower cladding thickness

Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Makoto Hikita 2-3-1 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Within Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (72) Kuki Takenaka 2-1-1, Nishishinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo d (72) Inventor Saburo Imamura 2-1-1, Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo F-term (reference) in NTT Advanced Technology Co., Ltd. 2H047 KA04 KA15 LA09 MA07 PA01 PA28 QA05 TA00 TA01

Claims (4)

[Claims] A polymer optical waveguide having a mirror structure is used as a substrate, and a transparent electrode and a polymer material having at least one porphine ring in a polymer material having a carbazole group are provided on the mirror structure on the substrate. In addition, a polymer optical integrated circuit light source having a light emitting element comprising an organic thin film layer formed of an aggregate formed by mixing one or more molecular solids, and a counter electrode. 2. The organic thin film layer according to claim 1, wherein the polymer material having a carbazole group contains polyvinyl carbazole, and the molecule having a porphine ring has a molecular weight of 5,1.
0,15,20 tetraphenyl-21H, 2
It contains 3H-porphine (TPP) molecule, and is 4- (dicyanomethylene) as a molecular solid.
-2-methyl-6- (p-dimethyla
minostyryl) -4H-pyran (DCM)
A polymer optical integrated circuit light source comprising a molecule. 3. A molecule having at least one porphine ring in a polymer material having a carbazole group on a transparent electrode formed on the mirror structure on a polymer optical waveguide having a mirror structure. In addition, an aggregate formed by mixing one or more molecular solids is dissolved in a solvent to form a solution, and an organic thin film layer having a light emitting function is laminated by a spin coating method, and the organic thin film layer is formed on the organic thin film layer. Forming a counter electrode, and a method of manufacturing a polymer optical integrated circuit light source. 4. The aggregate according to claim 3, wherein the aggregate is composed of polyvinyl carbazole and 5, 10, 15, 20 tetraps.
henyl-21H, 23H-porfine (TP
P) molecule and 4- (dicyanomethylen)
e) -2-methyl-6- (p-dimethyl)
aminostyryl) -4H-pyran (DC
M) A method for producing a polymer optical integrated circuit light source, wherein molecules are mixed at a molar ratio of 90: 1: 9.