Three-Dimensional Nano-Lithography for Emerging Technologies

Abstract

Grayscale lithography has shown particular success in the pursuit of surface machining capabilities because of the flexibility and convenience it offers in the fabrication of arbitrary three-dimensional surfaces. Accordingly, grayscale lithography has been demonstrated for a wide range of applications, including refractive and diffractive optical elements for focusing and beam shaping, optical interconnects, and MEMS. While our original motivation for this research area was the fabrication of three different micro-optical devices that would enable novel photonic devices, our efforts and results went considerably beyond that modest goal. Thus, in addition to demonstrating a grayscale coupling device and tilted mirrors, we designed and realized other approaches to coupling light from an optical fiber, fabricated a retro-reflector for the holographic exposure of three-dimensional photonic crystals, designed and realized compound-angle microprisms for arbitrary beam steering to enable free-space optical interconnection on a chip scale, produced a large-area blazed grating on a convex lens for space-based spectrometer, and fabricated numerous diffractive optical elements, such as high-efficiency lenses, for a variety of applications. We also developed a novel concept of an optical die for high-density interface between optical-fiber cable and chip-scale photonic circuitry, and demonstrated its feasibility by fabricating a prototype.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 27, 2005
Accession Number
ADA440758

Entities

People

  • Dennis W. Prather

Organizations

  • University of Delaware

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Beam Steering
  • Circuits
  • Couplings
  • Electron Beam Lithography
  • Emerging Technology
  • Fabrication
  • Fibers
  • Gray Scale
  • Lithography
  • Materials
  • Microelectromechanical Systems
  • Optical Fibers
  • Optical Interconnects
  • Photonic Crystals
  • Photonic Devices
  • Reflectors
  • Three Dimensional

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Integrated Circuit Design and Technology.
  • Nanofabrication and Microfabrication.
  • Optical Physics and Photonics.

Technology Areas

  • Space