Passive alignment method of polymer PLC devices by using a hot embossing technique

Author

Jin Tae Kim ; Keun Byoung Yoon ; Choon-Gi Choi

Author_Institution

Basic Res. Lab., Electron. & Telecommun. Res. Inst., Daejeon, South Korea

Volume

16

Issue

7

fYear

2004

fDate

7/1/2004 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1664

Lastpage

1666

Abstract

A novel fabrication process using a hot embossing technique has been developed for micromechanical passive alignment of polymer planar lightwave circuit (PLC) devices. With only one step of embossing, single-mode waveguide straight channels and micropedestals for passive aligning are simultaneously defined on a polymer thin film with an accuracy of /spl plusmn/0.5 μm. This process reduces the steps for fabricating alignment structures. A fabricated polymer PLC chip and fibers are combined on a v-grooved silicon optical bench (SiOB) in a flip-chip manner. The process provides a coupling loss as low as 0.67 dB per coupling face and a cost-effective packaging solution for various polymer PLC devices.

Keywords

embossing; flip-chip devices; optical fabrication; optical interconnections; optical losses; optical planar waveguides; optical polymers; PLC fibers; coupling loss; flip-chip manner; hot embossing technique; micromechanical passive alignment; micropedestals; optical interconnection; passive alignment method; planar lightwave circuit; polymer PLC chip; polymer PLC devices; polymer thin film; silicon optical bench; single-mode waveguide straight channels; Circuits; Embossing; Fabrication; Micromechanical devices; Optical fiber devices; Optical polymers; Optical waveguides; Polymer films; Programmable control; Silicon;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2004.828355

Filename

1308258