摘要
A polymer based horizontal single step waveguide fbr the sensing of alcohol is developed and analyzed.The waveguide is fabricated by 3-dimensional(3D)printing digital light processing(DLP)technology using monocure 3D rapid ultraviolet(UV)clear resin with a refractive index of n=1.50.The fabricated waveguide is a one-piece tower shaped ridge structure.It is designed to achieve the maximum light confinement at the core by reducing the effective refractive index around the cladding region.With the surface roughness generated from the 3D printing DLP technology,various waveguides with different gap sizes are printed.Comparison is done fbr the different gap waveguides to achieve the minimum feature gap size utilizing the light re-coupling principle and polymer swelling effect.This effect occurs due to the polymer-alcohol interaction that results in the diffusion of alcohol molecules inside the core of the waveguide,thus changing the waveguide from the leaky type(without alcohol)to the guided type(with alcohol).Using this principle,the analysis of alcohol concentration performing as a larger increase in the transmitted light in tensity can be measured.In this work,the sensitivity of the system is also compared and analyzed fbr different waveguide gap sizes with different concentrations of isopropanol alcohol(IPA).A waveguide gap size of 300 jim gives the highest in crease in the transmitted optical power of 65%when tested with 10μL(500ppm)concentration of IPA.Compared with all other gaps,it also displays faster response time(/=5seconds)fbr the optical power to change right after depositing IPA in the chamber.The measured limit of detection(LOD)achieved fbr 300μm is 0.366 yL.In addition,the fabricated waveguide gap of 300μm successfully demonstrates the sen sing limit of IPA concentration below 400μpm which is considered as an exposure limit by"National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health".All the mechanical mount and the alignments are done by 3D printing fused deposition method(FDM).
