Method of making a cover for an integrated optical circuit, cove

Details Method of making a cover for an integrated optical circuit, cove Method of making a cover for an integrated optical circuit, cove

1994-05-10

1995-09-26

Healy, Brian

Optical waveguides

Integrated optical circuit

385 88, 385 89, 385 92, 385 94, 385 90, 264 11, 264 124, 264 125, G02B 612, B29D 1100

Patent

active

054540550

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates generally to a method for making a cover for an integrated optical circuit.
German Patent Application DE-P 42 12 208.2, MAYER/BOSCH, has already disclosed a method for making optical polymer components with integrated fiber-chip coupling by a duplicate molding technique. To couple an integrated optical circuit in between two glass fibers, a polymer substrate is formed by means of a master structure such that the glass fibers come to rest in a V-shaped groove in the substrate. Their longitudinal axis is aligned with the longitudinal axis of a wave guide trench located in the substrate between the V-shaped grooves. By filling the grooves and the wave guide trench with polymer adhesive, both a mechanically firm bond between the substrate and the cover and an optical coupling of the glass fibers to the wave guide formed of the polymer adhesive are assured, once a polymer cover is put in place.
The article entitled "Channel glass wave guide detectors with grafted GaAs film in embedded configuration", in Electronic Letters 27 (1991), pp. 410-412, by Yi-Yan Chan et al, discloses the evanescent coupling of a photodetector, grafted onto a glass substrate, to a wave guide located in the substrate. This production process requires precise adjustment of the wave guide and photo detector relative to one another, which must be carried out individually for each component and involves a complicated adjustment process.


SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The method according to the invention has the advantage over the prior art that a cover for an integrated optical circuit can be made with extremely little effort for adjustment. There is also the advantage that the method of the invention is especially suitable for mass production, since the adjustment principle is automatable, and a plurality of covers for integrated optical circuits can be made simultaneously, and a plurality of integrated optical circuits can also be made together in one cover all at once.
Forming the adjustment elements and the optical component with partly oblique side faces is especially advantageous; as a result, even if slight maladjustments occur, the optical component is automatically adjusted laterally by gravity. Another advantageous feature is the provision of further adjustment elements that likewise automatically serve to provide vertical adjustment of the optical component.
Protrusions that leave behind a Bragg structure in the cover bring the advantage that Bragg structures are jointly made at the same time the cover is made. Contacting of the chip contacts by recesses created in the production process according to the invention advantageously economizes on one additional method step. Using a support plate not only facilitates manipulation of the optical component but also permits simultaneous production of a plurality of systems of the same type. Using a supplementary plate advantageously increases the mechanical stability of the entire arrangement.
The cover according to the invention is in particular produced by the method of the invention. V-shaped grooves facilitate the coupling of glass fibers to a system that includes the cover. The production process is especially suitable for integrating both integrated photodetectors and thermal actuators, because in that case, especially exact adjustment is required, which is achieved with especially little effort and expense by the method of the invention.
The cover of the invention is especially suitable for use in an integrated optical circuit, and the wave guide is advantageously formed when the cover is joined to a substrate by means of the adhesive, which fills a groove in the substrate.


DRAWING

Exemplary embodiments of the invention are shown in the drawing and described in further detail in the following description. Shown are:
FIG. 1, a perspective, cutaway view of an integrated optical circuit with a substrate, cover and glass fibers;
FIG. 2, a perspective view of the molding die and of the photodetector to be placed in it;
FIG. 3, a cross

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Y. Chan et al., "Channel Glass Waveguide Detectors with Grafted GaAs Film in Embedded Configuration," in Electronics Letters, vol. 27, No. 5, pp. 410-412 (Feb. 28, 1991).
"Silicon Optical Bench Research at AT&T Bell Laboratories", article by Greg E. Blonder, vol. 2, LEOS '90, IEEE Laser and Electro-Optics Society, Annual Meeting Conference Proceedings. (No month).

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