Photonic Integration Through 3D Printer Photonic Circuit Boards
Abstract
ABSTRACT Attn: Dr. Ignacio Perez Office of Naval Research, Code 332 Program Officer for PMC and NDE Office of Naval Research Code 332, rm 649 Arlington VA, 22203 Telephone: (703) 696-0688 E-mail: ignacio.perez1@navy.mil Photonics plays an increasingly important role in diverse fields such as telecommunications, biomedical and industrial sensing, manufacturing, and even optical computing. Photonics could play an even larger role than at present provided robust methods for integration of photonic components can be developed. Unlike electronic systems where inexpensive generic microelectronic chips can be readily assembled onto printed electronic circuit boards, a similar approach to integration of generic photonic integrated circuits (PICs) on a printed photonic circuit board is not the current practice due to the difficulty of fabricating reliable chip-to-chip interconnects which are inherently 3D in nature. The current practice of monolithic fabrication of PICs is application-specific and therefore both very expensive and not reconfigurable. Technology to create printed photonic circuit boards analogous to printed electronic circuit boards would be a game-changer in photonics integration. Such technology is becoming available today with emerging 3D printing systems that can provide sub-micron resolutions. This DURIP research equipment request is for a unique photonic 3D printing system from Nanoscribe, which will enable board-level integration of generic photonic components. The requested equipment would enable the fabrication of custom photonic printed circuit boards on which both free-space and generic PICs can be assembled and interconnected via 3D printed interconnects. On the research front, the requested equipment will be of immediate use in ongoing and proposed projects at NU in the area of photonic sensing for structural health monitoring funded by the ONR. It will provide us an in-house facility for fabrication of custom photonic circuits such as two-wave mixing spectral demodulators for Fiber Bragg Grating sensors. On the education front, it will be of use in several graduate level courses on Multifunctional Materials and Structural Health Monitoring. It will also help train the US workforce in advanced 3D printing of photonic systems and help address a key goal identified in the National Photonics Initiative to retain photonics manufacturing and packaging expertise within the US.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 12, 2016
- Source ID
- N000141512935
Entities
People
- Sridhar Krishnaswamy
Organizations
- Northwestern University
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy