Design and fabrication of polymer micro-optics for applications in automotive lighting and optical sensing

Micro-optics is a key enabling technology in the field of optics and photonics with versatile applications in illumination, sensing, optical communication, and photonic integrated circuits (PICs). However, the difficulty lies in the realization of these optical elements on desired materials. Polymer-based micro-optics offers various advantages over material such as glass and silicon due to low fabrication costs and the advantage of scaling up with roll-to-roll and roll-to-plate manufacturing capabilities. Utilization of micro-optical elements such as grating, lenses, and waveguides for beam shaping, light guiding, and sensing has seen drastic growth over the last decades for numerous applications e.g., PICs, holographic microscopy, optical beam shaping, to name a few. Micro-optics for applications such as in automotive lighting, for beam shaping, in the form of an information signal for communication between road users, is a topic of increasing interest in the research community. This work aims at designing and fabricating micro-optical structures for application in illumination and optical sensing. More specifically, diffractive structures in the form of diffractive optical element (DOEs) and optical waveguides are fabricated. The DOEs are utilized for automotive lighting and the waveguide structures are employed for optical sensing, respectively.