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Innovative, Inexpensive Etching Technique Developed for Polymer Electro- Optical StructuresElectro-optic, polymer-based integrated optic devices for high-speed communication and computing applications offer potentially significant advantages over conventional inorganic electro-optic crystals. One key area of integrated optical technology--primary processing and fabrication--may particularly benefit from the use of polymer materials. However, as efforts concentrate on the miniaturization of electro-integrated circuit pattern geometries, the ability to etch fine features and smoothly sloped sidewalls is essential to make polymers useful for electro-integrated circuit applications. There are many existing processes available to etch polymer materials, but they all yield nearly vertical sidewalls. Vertical sidewalls are too difficult to reliably cover with a metal layer, and incomplete metalization degrades microwave performance, particularly at high frequency. However, obtaining a very sloped sidewall greatly improves the deposition of metal on the sidewall, leading to low-loss characteristics, which are essential to integrating these devices in highspeed electro-optic modulators. The NASA Lewis Research Center has developed in-house an inexpensive etching technique that uses a photolithography method followed by a simple, wet chemical etching process to etch through polymer layers. In addition to being simpler and inexpensive, this process can be used to fabricate smoothly sloped sidewalls by using a commercial none rodible mask: Spin-On-Glass. A commercial transparent material, Spin-On-Glass, uses processes and equipment similar to that for photoresist techniques.
Document ID
20050188510
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Other
Authors
Nguyen, Hung D.
(NASA Lewis Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Date Acquired
August 23, 2013
Publication Date
April 1, 1999
Publication Information
Publication: Research and Technology 1998
Subject Category
Inorganic, Organic And Physical Chemistry
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.
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