Micropatterning of Inorganic-Organic Thick Hybrid Coating Films from Vinyltriethoxysilane

Abstract

Inorganic-organic hybrid coating films prepared by the sol-gel method have been studied extensively for micro-optic applications such as waveguides. In the present study, inorganic-organic hybrid coating films with a thickness of more than 5 μm were prepared from vinyltriethoxysilane (VTES). UV-light from a high-pressure mercury lamp was irradiated through a photo-mask on the hybrid films. IR spectra of the coating films have shown that C=C bonds in VTES were polymerized with the UV-irradiation. Ridge patterns with a width of about 3 μm and thickness of 3 - 40 μm were formed by the etching of unirradiated area of the films. Since VTES has a short organic chain, the hybrid films prepared from VTES are supposed to show small optical loss in the near-infrared region due to C-H bonds in their use as waveguides.