Packaging of photonic components VII: a method to eliminate the bulking and stressing of fiber ribbons in the planar-waveguide-based components

The bulking or stretching of fiber ribbons in the packaged waveguide-based components is associated with the performance deterioration of the components. The current industrial practice of avoiding the problem is to keep fiber ribbons movable regarding the packaging house. This approach, however, makes the component vulnerable to external load during component handling and does not complied with Telcordia test standard. A special technology based on incorporating a soft gasket was developed in our laboratory to solve the problem. The gasket is made of low-modulus elastomer or elastomer foams with certain thickness and is positioned between the packaging house and strain relief boots, on which fiber ribbons are bonded with an in-house developed epoxy adhesive that has passed Telcordia test. In the packaged components, any effect caused by the mismatched coefficient of thermal expansion between the packaging house and fiber ribbons are compensated by the gasket, and no bulking or stretching occurs in the fiber ribbons. Meanwhile, since the fiber ribbons are firmly bonded to the strain relief boots, any external force applied on the fiber ribbons is transferred to the packaging house, instead of the fiber arrays and waveguide dies. The packaged component with this technology meets the Telcordia test standard and is cost-effective.