Polymer Optical Fiber Tip Mass Production Etch Mechanism to Achieve CPC Shape for Improved Biosensor Performance

We report on a simple chemical etching method that enables nonlinear tapering of Polymer Optical Fiber (POF) tips to manufacture Compound Parabolic Concentrator (CPC) fiber tips. We show that, counter-intuitively, nonlinear tapering can be achieved by first etching the core and not the cladding. The...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2019-01, Vol.19 (2), p.285
Main Authors: Hassan, Hafeez Ul, Bang, Ole, Janting, Jakob
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biosensing Techniques - methods
blood or tissue constituent monitoring
etching
fiber optic sensors
Fiber Optic Technology - methods
Fluorescence
Glucose - chemistry
Glucose - isolation & purification
nonimaging optics
Optical Fibers
polymers
Polymers - chemistry
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Summary:We report on a simple chemical etching method that enables nonlinear tapering of Polymer Optical Fiber (POF) tips to manufacture Compound Parabolic Concentrator (CPC) fiber tips. We show that, counter-intuitively, nonlinear tapering can be achieved by first etching the core and not the cladding. The etching mechanism is modelled and etched tips are characterized both geometrically and optically in a fluorescence glucose sensor chemistry. A Zemax model of the CPC tipped sensor predicts an optimal improvement in light capturing efficiency of a factor of 3.96 compared to the conventional sensor with a plane-cut fiber tip. A batch of eight CPC fiber tips has been manufactured by the chemical etching method. The batch average showed an increase of a factor of 3.16, which is only 20% less than the predicted value. The method is reproducible and can be up-scaled for mass production.
ISSN:1424-8220
1424-8220
DOI:10.3390/s19020285