Microlens for efficient coupling between LED and optical fiber

Author

Park, Eun-Hyun ; Kim, Moon-Jung ; Kwon, Young-Se

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Korea Adv. Inst. of Sci. & Technol., Seoul, South Korea

Volume

11

Issue

4

fYear

1999

fDate

4/1/1999 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

439

Lastpage

441

Abstract

A new fabrication method of a microlens is proposed that can be easily applied to optical devices and microlens systems. The proposed microlens is formed by self-surface tension and cohesion of UV curing material. Since the microlens is hardened by short time UV exposure, the fabrication process is very simple. Integration with surface emitting-light emitting diode (SE-LED) results in enhanced coupling to optical fiber with coupling efficiency larger than the conventional case by 1.5 times. We also made a hemispheric microlensed fiber using this method. Compared with a typical arc-lensed fiber and a flat-end fiber, the coupling efficiency is improved to 18% and 40%, respectively.

Keywords

integrated optics; light emitting diodes; microlenses; optical couplers; optical fabrication; 18 percent; 40 percent; LED; UV curing material; arc-lensed fiber; cohesion; coupling efficiency; enhanced coupling; fabrication method; fabrication process; flat-end fiber; hemispheric microlensed fiber; microlens coupling; optical devices; optical fiber coupling; self-surface tension; short time UV exposure; surface emitting-light emitting diode; Etching; Lenses; Light emitting diodes; Microoptics; Optical coupling; Optical device fabrication; Optical fibers; Optical materials; Resists; Shape;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/68.752541

Filename

752541