Design and Fabrication of Micro Photonic Sensors for Manufacturing

Micron-sized subwavelength structured photonic sensors could allow critical thermo-mechanical phenomena in manufacturing processes to be monitored, while offering opportunities for fundamental understanding and better control of manufacturing processes. To implement these novel sensors into real manufacturing processes, the micro photonic sensors can be embedded at critical locations in metallic structures, which are still heavily used in hostile manufacturing environments. This paper presents the study of design, fabrication, and testing of integrated microring sensors. Various thin film optical materials were studied. Single ring resonators were designed. A new approach to fabricate metal embedded microring sensors was developed. Sensors fabricated on silicon wafers were tested and the Q factor was measured to be around 2000, the free spectrum range (FSR) was about 5 nm. Preliminary results of metal embedded sensors are also presented.