Micro-engineered fibre-ribbon termination for reflective modulator arrays

Actively aligned fibre termination can be a significant cost contribution to the manufacture of optoelectronic components. Micro-machined piece-parts can allow a self-aligned construction to be used, with consequent savings. This paper describes the design and realisation of a self-aligned fibre-ribbon termination for a modulator array intended for a high-energy physics optical interconnect application at CERN. The InP MQW reflective modulator elements are vertical entry, with an effective diameter of 40 μm, at 250 μm pitch. Optical access is from the substrate side, and single mode fibres must be coupled to the reverse side of the semiconductor substrate