Contents I. Introduction
In order to meet the increasing amount of data in the industry, optical data transfer will substitute current used copper based technologies. For communication as well as for optoelectronic sensors the advantages concerning low attenuation and low susceptibility to electromagnetic fields are the reason for a lot of approaches in current research projects [1]. Especially for short distance transmissions up to 100 m the usage of polymer optical waveguides (POW) is becoming progressively more important. The benefits of using these is the higher numerical aperture, which allows for a lower curvature radius compared to glass fibers. New production technologies are in focus of research in order to become competitive to copper based technologies concerning productivity and quality [2]. Functional printing is one approach to achieve these requirements. This paper describes a technique where conditioning lines are printed with a flexographic printing machine. It is equipped with an adapted printing form containing laser structured and fluorinated raised structures on it to optimize the printing process.
