Through-etched silicon carriers for passive alignment of optical fibers to surface-active optoelectronic components

Abstract Silicon carriers for passive alignment of optical fibers to surface-active optoelectronic components with micrometer precision are presented. The carriers are through-etched by deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) to make vertical fiber alignment holes that go through the chip. On the top surface of the carrier, high-precision electrodes and eutectic AuSn-solder bumps are deposited by evaporation and electroplating. Surface active opto-components, vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) or photodetectors are flip-chip mounted on the solder bumps, and are self-aligned to the carrier during the soldering process. Finally optical fibers are inserted and glued in the fiber holes, thereby aligning them to the opto-components. Alignment experiments with multi-mode VCSELs show a coupling efficiency of >90%.

[1]  Ylva Bäcklund,et al.  Bulk silicon holding structures for mounting of optical fibers in v-grooves , 1997 .

[2]  G. Nakagawa,et al.  Lens-coupled laser diode module integrated on silicon platform , 1996 .

[3]  J. V. Collins,et al.  The packaging of large spot-size optoelectronic devices , 1996, 1996 Proceedings 46th Electronic Components and Technology Conference.

[4]  Jan Vandewege,et al.  Multichannel optical modules compatible with the fiber-in-board technology , 1996 .

[5]  K. Kurata,et al.  2D alignment free VCSEL-array module with push/pull fibre connector , 1996 .

[6]  O. Kjebon,et al.  20 GHz bandwidth of lasers flip-chip-mounted on microstructured carriers with integrated electrical waveguides , 1998, 24th European Conference on Optical Communication. ECOC '98 (IEEE Cat. No.98TH8398).

[7]  Manfred Rode,et al.  Low-cost VCSEL-transceiver module for optical data busses , 1997, Conference Proceedings. LEOS '97. 10th Annual Meeting IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society 1997 Annual Meeting.

[8]  T. Hashimoto,et al.  Passively aligned hybrid WDM module integrated with spot-size converter integrated laser diode and waveguide photodiode on PLC platform for fibre-to-the-home , 1996 .

[9]  M. Wale.  Self aligned, flip chip assembly of photonic devices with electrical and optical connections , 1990, 40th Conference Proceedings on Electronic Components and Technology.

[10]  Rainer Michalzik,et al.  8/spl times/8 POF based interchip interconnection with 2.5 Gbit/s per channel data transmission , 1998, 24th European Conference on Optical Communication. ECOC '98 (IEEE Cat. No.98TH8398).

[11]  J. Ko,et al.  Flip-chip bonded arrays of monolithically integrated, microlensed vertical-cavity lasers and resonant photodetectors , 1999, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.