Enabling high-throughput assembly lines for photonic packaging can dramatically improve cost and scalability of photonic devices. Self-alignment structures can be used to achieve the micron range alignment required by single-mode optics on the photonic device despite the lower high-throughput tools placement accuracy of typical 10 um. The optical interconnection also neesd to withstand stresses both from package thermal incursion, notably at solder reflow, and from the MT interface connector.
This project leverages existing microelectronic assembly infrastructure for optical packaging. This is a path to large scale and low cost manufacturing for photonic packages. One process involves the automated placement of a 12 fiber stub, with self-alignment, into a photonic device’s v-grooves. This optical interconnect is subjected to significant stresses during thermal excursions arising from downstream assembly processes, environmental stress testing, and during the plugging in and out of the MT interface connector. This project is focused on developing a strain relief method for an automated fiber attach technique in order to achieve the necessary reliability and optical performance as well as paving the way for a solder reflowable photonic package.
