M.A. Mignatti, M.I. Campbell, R. Ruizpalacios
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX 78712
mc1@mail.utexas.edu
Both the current long-term telecommunication trends toward optical networking and the recent growth in information bandwidth have pushed the necessity for improved optical communications. To address this need, many research groups have sought an approach based on current fabrication methods such as chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Our fabrication approach, which leverages our expertise in solid freeform fabrication, has advantages over these other methods because of the inherent benefits of using a direct-write philosophy, such as design flexibility and minimal post-processing. This paper will show the technical issues involved in creating small optical components by locally densifying glass in a modified direct-write process.