Fabrication of micro-polarizer array with polymer thin film

In this project, significant advancements have been made in creating an array of micro-polarizers using a polymer thin film in order to extract various polarization parameters about the imaged environment. The array of micro-polarizers is to be integrated with custom-made VLSI image sensor in order to create a complete low power real-time bio-inspired polarization sensitive imaging sensor. Two different photoresists, i.e. positive and negative photoresist, are used for patterning the polarization thin-film. The advantages and disadvantages of both procedures are analyzed in details. The isotropic properties of the etching procedure of the thin-film are compared between oxygen plasma and reactive ion etching. The optimum isotropic etching is outlined as a function of temperature, pressure and gases flow. Finally, we have summarized the complete procedure for creating a micro-polarize array with sub-μm precision.