Fiber assembly alignment using fiducials

Abstract

An assembly and an optical element have fiducials for alignment of multiple beam paths during fabrication of an optical device. In an assembly including a substrate with machined grooves for optical fibers, a fiducial can be a carbon-coated fiber or other object disposed in one of the grooves. In an assembly including a collimator array, a fiducial can be an opaque collimator lens. Alternatively, photolithographic processes can provide the required positional accuracy for fiducials on the assembly and/or the optical element. During alignment, a computer-controllable process can use machine vision or distance measurements to identify the position and the orientation of the assembly relative to the optical element. Based on the identified position and orientation, the process moves the assembly to the target position and orientation that provide sufficient optical power flow through the optical element for a fine alignment process.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.