Passive assembly of parallel optical devices onto polymer-based optical printed circuit boards.
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Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present the latest results from research and development into future optical printed circuit board (OPCB) interconnects and low-cost assembly methods.Design/methodology/approach - A novel method of high-precision passive alignment and assembly to OPCBs was invented and a full evaluation platform developed to demonstrate the viability of this technique.Findings - The technique was successfully deployed to passively align and assemble a lens receptacle onto an embedded polymer waveguide array in an electro-OPCB. The lens receptacle formed a critical part of a dual lens pluggable in-plane connection interface between peripheral optical devices and an OPCB. A lateral in-plane mechanical accuracy of +/- 2 mu m has been measured using this technique.Research limitations/implications - As this is a free space optical coupling process, surface scattering at the exposed waveguide end facet was significant.Originality/value - This paper details a novel method of passively assembling arbitrary optical devices onto multi-mode optical waveguides and outlines the procedure and equipment required. A lens coupling solution is also presented which reduces susceptibility of a connecting optical interface to contamination.
|Title:||Passive assembly of parallel optical devices onto polymer-based optical printed circuit boards|
|Open access status:||An open access version is available from UCL Discovery|
|Keywords:||Optical instruments, Printed circuits, Polymers, Data communication equipment, WAVE-GUIDE BENDS|
|UCL classification:||UCL > School of BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Electronic and Electrical Engineering|
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