Devices and methods for waveguide alignment
AssigneeUniversity College Cork, National University of Ireland, Cork
InventorPeter O'Brien
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present disclosure is directed towards aligning a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) through providing a PIC with a marker waveguide, wherein a marker waveguide is a waveguide having: a first end located at the edge of the PIC wherein the first end is coupled to an edge coupling; and a second end coupled to a grating coupler or a device coupler, wherein: the grating coupler or device coupler is configured to receive light and couple the light to the waveguide to illuminate the waveguide to facilitate the correct alignment of the edge coupler to an external component.
Claims14
A device comprising a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) and a glass or silicon interposer on which the PIC is flipchip mounted, said PIC comprising a marker waveguide, wherein the marker waveguide comprises:
- a first end located at the edge of the PIC wherein the first end is coupled to an edge coupling;
- and
- a second end coupled to a grating coupler or device coupler, wherein:
- the grating coupler or a device coupler is configured to receive light through the glass or silicon interposer and further through a substrate of the PIC from above the PIC, and couple the light to the waveguide to illuminate the waveguide to facilitate the correct alignment of the edge coupler to an external component.
A method of aligning a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) with an external optical element comprising:
- flipchip mounting the PIC on a glass or silicon interposer;
- providing the PIC with a marker waveguide, wherein a marker waveguide is a waveguide having:
- a first end located at the edge of the PIC, wherein the first end is coupled to an edge coupling;
- and
- a second end coupled to a grating coupler or a device coupler, wherein:
- the grating coupler or device coupler is configured to receive light through the glass or silicon interposer and further through a substrate of the PIC from above the PIC, and couple the light to the waveguide to illuminate the waveguide to facilitate the correct alignment of the edge coupler to an external component;
- illuminating the grating coupler or device coupler of the marker waveguide with a light source to illuminate the marker waveguide;
- and
- aligning the PIC using the light emitted by the edge coupler of the marker waveguide.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.