Metallic optical benches with stamped micro-mirrors for photonic assemblies and optical interconnects

Metallic optical benches that are useful in photonics packaging and optical interconnects can be manufactured with ultra-high precision stamping processes. They contain microscale features suitable for passive alignment of optical components. A recent innovation is the ability to stamp micro mirrors into metallic optical benches. These mirrors have finishes better than Sa = 5 nm without any secondary processes. Micro mirrors expand the utility of metallic optical benches by enabling light beams to be folded or shaped using aspherical micro mirrors that focus or expand the light beams. This is accomplished without any additional cost of refractive for diffractive lenses, and the mirrors are aligned to other bench features by the stamping process. We present exemplary metallic optical benches with micro mirror arrays for connecting optical fibers to photonic devices such as photonic integrated circuits and discrete photodiodes.