Highly accurate and quick bonding of a laser-diode chip onto a planar lightwave circuit

A method for accurately and quickly bonding a planar lightwaveguide circuit (PLC) and a laser diode is proposed. It is based on simultaneous auto-focusing on marks fabricated on the PLC and laser diode. Bonding equipment constructed to implement the method achieves alignment accuracy of ± 1 μm and greatly reduces the turn-around-time, i.e., the time from when the laser diode is picked up by the tweezers to completion of the bonding process.