Recent Progress of Imprinted Polymer Photonic Waveguide Devices and Applications

Polymers (Basel). 2018 May 31;10(6):603. doi: 10.3390/polym10060603.

Abstract

Polymers are promising materials for fabricating photonic integrated waveguide devices. Versatile functional devices can be manufactured using a simple process, with low cost and potential mass-manufacturing. This paper reviews the recent progress of polymer photonic integrated devices fabricated using the UV imprinting technique. The passive polymer waveguide devices for wavelength filtering, power splitting, and light collecting, and the active polymer waveguide devices based on the thermal-optic tuning effect, are introduced. Then, the electro-optic (EO) modulators, by virtue of the high EO coefficient of polymers, are described. Finally, the photonic biosensors, which are based on low-cost and biocompatible polymer platforms, are presented.

Keywords: active photonic integrated waveguide devices; imprinting technique; passive photonic integrated waveguide devices; photonic biosensors; polymer photonics.

Publication types

  • Review