Adhesive joint design for high yield and low cost assembly of fiberoptic devices

Adhesives tend to be popular because they are versatile, fill gaps on uneven surfaces, join dissimilar substrates and offer flexible adjustment time. Cures can be achieved within seconds for UV curable adhesives.. However, the curing process and cooling process of the adhesive may cause large distortions of the already aligned fiberoptic components, and thus reduce the assembly coupling efficiency. A new methodology for the adhesive design joint for fiberoptic component attachment is reported. Effect of adhesive materials properties, adhesive joint parameters, and UV curing conditions on the relative displacement, i.e., misalignment of fiber and lens arrays, during the curing process is investigated by means of finite element method. The results indicate that for a given adhesive and curing condition, the adhesive joint can be controlled to alleviate the alignment distortion during curing and cooling. Regardless of the adhesive used, the optical loss induced by the adhesive attachment process is found to be within the tolerance. This new adhesive joint design approach can be used for high yield and low cost assembly of photonic devices using adhesive bonding.