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US 12,663,576 B2Granted
Waveguide manufacture
AssigneeEnvisics Ltd
InventorsEdward Boardman, Timothy Smeeton, Ruisheng Lin
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method is provided of manufacturing a waveguide comprising an input port, an output port, a transparent medium having a first refractive index (n1), a first pair of opposing surfaces and a second pair of opposing surfaces. The method comprises polishing at least one surface of the second pair of opposing surfaces to achieve a separation therebetween, bonding a protective layer to at least one polished surface of the second pair of opposing surfaces; and polishing at least one surface of the first pair of opposing surfaces to achieve a separation therebetween.
Claims20
A method of manufacturing a waveguide, the waveguide comprising:
- a waveguiding layer of a transparent medium having a first refractive index (n1), the waveguiding layer having
- a first pair of opposing elongate surfaces arranged to guide a wavefront through the transparent medium from the input port to the output port by reflection therebetween in a zig-zag path to provide a plurality of reflections at distinct locations along lengths of the first surface of the first pair of opposing elongate surfaces and the second surface of the first pair of opposing elongate surfaces, and
- a second pair of opposing surfaces,
- an input port on a first surface or a second surface of the first pair of opposing elongate surfaces,
- an output port on the first surface of the first pair of opposing elongate surfaces,
- a partially transmissive-reflective coating on the first surface of the first pair of opposing elongate surfaces, arranged such that the wavefront is divided at each reflection and a plurality of replicas of the wavefront are transmitted through a region of the first surface that forms the output port, and
- a reflective coating on the second surface of the first pair of opposing elongate surfaces,
- the method comprising:
- providing a body of the transparent medium having a first pair of opposing elongate surfaces and a second pair of opposing surfaces;
- polishing a first surface of the second pair of opposing surfaces of the body of the transparent medium to provide the second pair of surfaces of the waveguiding layer, the second pair of surfaces of the waveguiding layer having a separation therebetween;
- bonding a first protective layer to the polished first surface of the second pair of opposing surfaces;
- polishing a first surface of the first pair of opposing elongate surfaces and/or a second surface of the first pair of opposing elongate surfaces of the body of transparent medium to provide the first pair of surfaces of the waveguiding layer, the first pair of surfaces having a separation therebetween;
- providing the reflective coating on the first surface of the first pair of opposing elongate surfaces, and
- providing the partially-transmissive/partially-reflective coating on the second surface of the first pair of opposing elongate surfaces.
11 more elements
A method of manufacturing a waveguide comprising
- a waveguiding layer of a transparent medium having a first refractive index (n1), the waveguiding layer having
- a first pair of opposing elongate surfaces arranged to guide a wavefront through the transparent medium from the input port to the output port by reflection therebetween in a zig-zag path to provide a plurality of reflections at distinct locations along lengths of the first surface of the first pair of opposing elongate surfaces and the second surface of the first pair of opposing elongate surfaces, and
- a second pair of opposing surfaces,
- an input port on a first surface or a second surface of the first pair of opposing elongate surfaces,
- an output port on the first surface of the first pair of opposing elongate surfaces,
- a partially transmissive-reflective coating on the first surface of the first pair of opposing elongate surfaces, arranged such that the wavefront is divided at each reflection and a plurality of replicas of the wavefront are transmitted through a region of the first surface that forms the output port, and
- a reflective coating on the second surface of the first pair of opposing elongate surfaces,
- the method comprising:
- providing a body of the transparent medium having a first pair of opposing elongate surfaces and a second pair of opposing surfaces;
- polishing a first surface of the second pair of opposing surfaces of the body of the transparent medium to provide the second pair of surfaces of the waveguiding layer, the second pair of surfaces of the waveguiding layer having a separation therebetween and introduce an undesired profile in at least one edge of the first surface of the second pair of opposing surfaces;
- applying a first optical coating to the polished first surface of the second pair of opposing surfaces, the optical coating having a refractive index (n2) less than the first refractive index (n1) of the transparent medium;
- bonding a first protective layer to the first optical coating, wherein the first protective layer is formed from the same material as the transparent medium;
- and
- polishing a first surface of the first pair of opposing elongate surfaces and/or a second surface of the first pair of opposing elongate surfaces of the body of transparent medium to provide the first pair of surfaces of the waveguiding layer, the first pair of surfaces having separation therebetween and remove the undesired profile.
11 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.