Investigation of fabrication conditions for Y-branched polymer optical waveguides using the Mosquito method

In this paper, the conditions for fabricating Y-branched optical waveguides using the Mosquito method are discussed, focusing on the viscosity of the monomer and the branch angle. With increasing the viscosity of core monomer, the Y-branching structures tend to be distorted particularly when the branching angle is larger than 0.5 degree. After finding out the appropriate fabrication conditions, Y-branched optical waveguides in which two-port cores are vertically stacked are fabricated, taking the advantage of the Mosquito method: the ability to form three-dimensional core wiring patterns. Single-mode and multimode cores are successfully formed in which we could confirm the light propagation.