Media.Player

3D Printed Optical Boards (Yissum)

Summary

Highlights:

- Printed optics technology has been developed for creating custom optical elements for interactive devices using 3D printing. These include lab-on-chip systems for electro-optical and fluidic control/measurement.

-◾In current methods, optical components are printed using 3D printing techniques, which results in inherently lower quality components, far from the standard required for true research grade devices.

-◾There is a need for a novel approach for constructing optical systems in a similar way to the way electronics systems are constructed using pre-routed boards that contain optical circuitry and the ability to include “pick and place” analog to optical components.

Our Innovation:

A novel optical circuit board (OCB) carrying a 3D printed pattern of the waveguide circuits and chassis mounts so that external optical elements can then be mounted on the chassis mounts. Commercially available materials and tools are used to print the optical interconnects and to position mounts of high quality, low cost, commercial micro-optics.

Key Features:

-◾The OCB may be integrated in a straightforward manner using standard electronic circuit techniques to allow the construction of simple, integrated, electro-optical systems

-◾Simplifies designing, constructing, and maintaining simple optical systems

-◾Enables optical sensing, display, and illumination elements to be directly embedded in the body of an interactive device

-◾Provides a platform for the integration of off-the-shelf, high-quality, optical components

Development Milestones:

-◾Fabricated first successful prototypes of printed fibers.

-◾Learned how to mitigate surface roughness in fibers to improve optical attenuation by appropriate chemical treatment.

-◾Now working on automated cleaving and polishing procedures for outcoupling and injection of light within the circuit.

-◾Expect preliminary passive devices with micro/millimeter optics fully integrated with six months.

The Opportunity:

Vastly extending the capabilities of electro-optical devices to allow for fully usable “lab-on-board” and “experiment-on-board” applications

3D printing allows for fluidic chambers to be fully integrated into the structure for spectroscopic and dynamical measurements at low cost.

Patent Information

PCT filed

Others

Prototypes of printed optical fibers

ID No.

14-2013-2954

Country/Region

Israel