Assembling of fiber collimators for photonic devices

Packaging and assembly covers almost 80% of the overall cost of any fiber-optic device. It is thus a demanding issue to lower the cost of fiber-optic alignment and attachment process. This work presents the development of automated packaging using adhesives, i.e., alignment and attachment of 8-channel fiber collimators for photonic devices. The optimal fiber-lens arrayed coupling and alignment are first determined, and the tolerances for all 3 linear (x, y, z) and 3 angular (pitch, roll and yaw) misalignments are obtained. The fiber and lens attachments using three different UV-curing adhesives of different properties are performed. The entire process of arrayed fiber-lens alignment and attachment is automated using AutoAlign™. Optical tests are performed to determine the coupling loss of the assembled collimators as well as the coupling loss induced by the attachment process. The results show that the overall coupling loss of the assembled devices is well below 2 dB, and the assembly yield is found to be extremely high and consistent.