Method for manufacturing optical waveguide and optical waveguide

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2024329311-A1
Application number	US-202418617623-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 26, 2024
Priority date	Mar 28, 2023
Publication date	Oct 3, 2024
Grant date	—

Abstract

The embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method for manufacturing an optical waveguide and an optical waveguide, the method for manufacturing includes: providing a substrate; forming a first thin film layer, a second thin film layer and a sacrificial layer on the substrate in a stacked manner, a refractive index of the first thin film layer is larger than 2; exposing and developing the sacrificial layer so that the sacrificial layer forms a first mask layer; etching the second thin film layer by taking the first mask layer as mask so that the second thin film layer forms a second mask layer; removing the first mask layer, and etching the first thin film layer by taking the second mask layer as mask so that the first thin film layer forms a grating layer; and removing the second mask layer to form the optical waveguide comprising the grating layer and the substrate.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for manufacturing an optical waveguide, comprising:
providing a substrate; forming a first thin film layer, a second thin film layer and a sacrificial layer on the substrate in a stacked manner, wherein a refractive index of the first thin film layer is larger than 2; exposing and developing the sacrificial layer so that the sacrificial layer forms a first mask layer; etching the second thin film layer by taking the first mask layer as mask so that the second thin film layer forms a second mask layer; removing the first mask layer, and etching the first thin film layer by taking the second mask layer as mask so that the first thin film layer forms a grating layer, wherein the grating layer comprises a plurality of skewed tooth gratings, slant angles of all the skewed tooth gratings relative to the substrate are equal, and heights of all the skewed tooth gratings are equal; and removing the second mask layer to form the optical waveguide comprising the grating layer and the substrate.

2 . The method for manufacturing an optical waveguide according to claim 1 , wherein the step of removing the first mask layer, and etching the first thin film layer by taking the second mask layer as mask so that the first thin film layer forms a grating layer comprises:
removing the first mask layer using 02 plasma; and obliquely etching the first thin film layer using a reaction ion beam by taking the second mask layer as mask so as to form the grating layer.

3 . The method for manufacturing an optical waveguide according to claim 2 , wherein slant angle of the reactive ion beam with respect to the substrate is 25-50 degrees.

4 . The method for manufacturing an optical waveguide according to claim 1 , wherein a thickness of the first thin film layer is 0.05-0.5 μm, and a height of the skewed tooth grating is 0.05 to 0.5 μm.

5 . The method for manufacturing an optical waveguide according to claim 4 , wherein the first thin film layer is a TiO 2 film layer, a thickness of the TiO 2 film layer is 0.35 μm, and a refractive index of the TiO 2 film layer is 2.5; and
the slant angle of the skewed tooth grating is 30 degrees, the height of skewed tooth grating is 0.35 μm.

6 . The method for manufacturing an optical waveguide according to claim 1 , wherein a method for forming the first thin film layer and the second thin film layer is physical vapor deposition.

7 . The method for manufacturing an optical waveguide according to claim 6 , wherein a method for manufacturing the sacrificial layer comprises:
spin coating photoresist on the second thin film layer to form the sacrificial layer.

8 . The method for manufacturing an optical waveguide according to claim 1 , wherein the step of etching the second thin film layer by taking the first mask layer as mask so that the second thin film layer forms a second mask layer comprises:
dry etching the second thin film layer using plasma by taking the first mask layer as mask so that the second thin film layer forms the second mask layer.

9 . The method for manufacturing an optical waveguide according to claim 1 , wherein the step of removing the second mask layer to form the optical waveguide comprising the grating layer and the substrate comprises:
removing the second mask layer using wet etching.

10 . The method for manufacturing an optical waveguide according to claim 1 , wherein in the step of providing a substrate, the method comprises:
providing the substrate with a cleaned surface.

11 . The method for manufacturing an optical waveguide according to claim 1 , further comprising, after the step of removing the second mask layer to form the optical waveguide comprising the grating layer and the substrate, the method further comprises:
cleaning the grating layer and the substrate.

12 . An optical waveguide comprising a substrate and a grating layer, the grating layer is disposed on the substrate and comprises a plurality of skewed tooth gratings, slant angles of all the skewed tooth gratings relative to the substrate are equal, and heights of all the skewed tooth gratings are equal; and
refractive index of the grating layer is greater than 2.

13 . The optical waveguide of claim 12 , wherein the refractive index of the grating layer is less than or equal to 3;
the slant angle of the skewed tooth grating relative to the substrate is 25-50 degrees; the height of the skewed tooth grating is 0.05-0.5 μm.

Assignees

• Beijing Zitiao Network Technology Co Ltd
• Lemon Inc

Inventors

• Xiong Wen
• Zhang Peng
• Tan Wei
• Tang Hao

Classifications

• G02B6/005

  provided by one optical element, or plurality thereof, placed on the light output side of the light guide · CPC title

• G02B6/0065 Primary

  Manufacturing aspects; Material aspects · CPC title

• G02B6/136 Primary

  by etching · CPC title

• G02B6/124 Primary

  Geodesic lenses or integrated gratings · CPC title