Optical waveguides – With disengagable mechanical connector – Optical fiber to a nonfiber optical device connector
Reexamination Certificate
2002-08-02
2004-05-11
Ullah, Akm Enayet (Department: 2874)
Optical waveguides
With disengagable mechanical connector
Optical fiber to a nonfiber optical device connector
C385S039000, C385S040000, C385S089000, C385S093000, C398S141000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06733189
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to an electrooptical transmitting and/or receiving module, and a method for producing the module. The invention is in the field of the production of electrooptical assemblies or modules that usually have a plug receptacle for connecting and optically coupling suitable coupling partners, for example optical conductors. Also conceivable as coupling partners are other optical or electrooptical elements: e.g. for electrically isolating from a further electrooptical module. For converting electrical signals into optical ones or for converting optical signals into electrical ones, such modules have electrooptical transducers that have a light-emitting (transmitter) or light-sensitive (receiver) region that is also designated as optically active zone within the scope of the present invention. In addition to the electrooptical transformation of the signals, a high coupling efficiency in the case of feeding optical signals into or out of waveguides also requires precise coupling of the signal-exporting and/or signal feeding optical conductors (coupling partners). Light emitting diodes (LEDs) or horizontally radiating laser diodes, for example, are used as transmitters in optical communications engineering. Depending on the construction, these frequently have a large numerical aperture that requires the use of lenses for optical coupling with high efficiency.
Such a transmitting/receiving module is disclosed, for example, in commonly-owned, published, non-prosecuted German Patent Application No. DE 197 11 138 A1, which corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 6,312,624. In the case of the production method described therein for an electrooptical module, a support, in general a lead frame, is positioned exactly by a positioning element dedicated to the support in a component insertion device in which a transducer is disposed and fixed on the support in the precise relative position in relation to the positioning element. The support is subsequently positioned exactly by the positioning element in a potting mould and surrounded by a formable material with the formation of a shaped body, the shaped body having a functional surface serving the purpose of optical coupling, for example a lens or a stop surface. The transducer can be either a transmitter, such as a semiconductor laser, or a receiver, such as a semiconductor photodiode. In the case of this electrooptical module, it is provided that the radiation beam emitted by a transmitter, or a radiation beam detected by a receiver covers a direct and straight light path between a light entry or light exit surface of the module and the transmitter/receiver. However, this restricts the possibilities of structural implementation of the electrooptical module, since it must always be ensured during production that the light entry or light exit surface of the transmitting or receiving surface of the transducer lie directly opposite. The selection of a specific transmitter, for example a vertically emitting vertical resonator semiconductor laser diode (VCSEL), thereby determines the shape of the module and of the shaped body. Conversely, the shape of the module, in particular the relative position of the lead frame in relation to the light exit side mostly prescribes the type of the transmitter to be used.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide an electrooptical transmitting/receiving module and a method for producing the module that overcome the hereinafore-mentioned disadvantages of the heretofore-known devices and methods of this general type and that ensure a more flexible construction of the module that is independent of the type of transmitter or receiver, is ensured. In particular, an object of the present invention is to specify an electrooptical module and a method for producing the module in which the light of the radiation beam is deflected inside the shaped body.
Consequently, the invention describes an electrooptical transmitting and/or receiving module having a shaped body, a first lead frame, and a reflector element. The shaped body is made from a transparent, formable material. The first lead frame is surrounded by the shaped body at least on a section on which an optoelectronic transducer is mounted. The reflector element is surrounded at least partially by the shaped body and has a reflecting surface that faces the transducer in such a way that it deflects by a predetermined angle a radiation beam in a light path between the transducer and a light entry or light exit side of the module.
In an electrooptical module according to the invention, the described reflector element can reflect a radiation beam emitted by a receiver in the direction of a prescribed light exit surface. Likewise, the described reflector element can deflect in the direction of a receiver a radiation beam launched into the module through a light entrance surface. The reflector element is dispose in a fixed relative position with reference to the transducer, because it is surrounded, together with the transducer or the section on which the transducer is mounted by the transparent, formable material.
Likewise, the invention describes a method for producing an electrooptical module having a shaped body made from a transparent formable material. In the method, an optoelectronic transducer is mounted on a section of a first lead frame. A reflector element having a reflecting surface is positioned in such a way relative to the first lead frame and the optoelectronic transducer that the reflecting surface deflects by a predetermined angle a radiation beam in the light path between the transducer and a provided light entry or light exit side of the module. The shaped body is formed by the virtue of the fact that the first lead frame and the reflector element are potted or encapsulated with the aid of the transparent formable material.
During production of the transmitting and/or receiving module according to the invention, an initially spatially coherent lead frame is formed in a way known per se and provided with optoelectronic transducers on sections provided for the purpose. Only subsequently and mostly between different phases of a casting or injection operation are individual connecting webs between different connecting sections of the lead frame severed. It is thus also possible in the case of the module according to the invention for a plurality of transducers, that is to say in principle an arbitrary number of transmitters and/or receivers, to be mounted on coherent sections of the lead frame or sections of the lead frame separated from one another in the final stage.
As a rule, the reflector element is directed with its reflecting surface with reference to the optoelectronic transducer in such a way that an emitting or a receiving radiation beam describes a light path in which a beam deflection by an angle of 90° is included. Because the shaped body mostly has a cuboid shape, the possibility is thereby created of deflecting an emitted radiation beam at a right angle onto a provided light exit surface of the shaped body. A degree of freedom is thereby gained in selecting between two different semiconductor lasers, specifically, an edge-emitting semiconductor laser and a vertically emitting semiconductor laser, such as a vertical resonator semiconductor laser (VCSEL).
There are various possibilities for producing and positioning the reflector element relative to the lead frame holding the transducer.
In a first embodiment of the present invention, the lead frame holding the transducer and the reflector element are formed from an originally unipartide lead frame. During the potting operation or the encapsulation of the lead frame with the transparent, formable material, it is then possible for the lead frame holding the transducer and the reflector element to be separated from one another. They can also, however, be connected to one another in the final stage of the electrooptical transmitting/receiving module. If, for example, the transmitter is an edge-emitt
Hurt Hans
Müller Gustav
Weigert Martin
Wittl Josef
Greenberg Laurence A.
Infineon - Technologies AG
Locher Ralph E.
Rahll Jerry T
Stemer Werner H.
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