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US 2004/0165829 A1Published application
Passive alignment of optical fibers with optical elements
AssigneeCorning Incorporated
InventorsAlfredo D. Botet, Stephen J. Caracci, Adam J. Fusco, Sean M. Garner, Cheng-Chung Li, Daniel R. Sempolinski
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Articles and methods for manufacturing pigtailed planar optical devices are disclosed. The articles and methods include providing a tool including a substrate having a stepped region. The tool is capable of forming elements such as grippers or waveguides on a device substrate having different heights.
Claims16
A method of forming a planar optical device including planar waveguides comprising:
- providing a generally planar forming tool including a substrate having a stepped region on the substrate and a mask pattern on a portion of the substrate configured to form optical element flexible gripping elements;
- placing the forming tool over a device substrate, adding curable material between the tool and the device substrate, and forming flexible gripping elements having channels defined by at least a pair of sidewalls adapted to hold optical elements, the channels being formed such that when an optical fiber is placed in the channels, the optical fibers and the planar waveguides are optically aligned horizontally and vertically.
A planar optical device forming tool comprising:
- a generally planar substrate surface including an ultraviolet pattern mask having masked and unmasked areas adapted to form flexible optical fiber gripping elements having channels for securing optical fibers to a substrate when UV curable material is placed beneath the mask and the mask is exposed to UV light;
- and
- a generally planar stepped portion including trench forming regions configured to form planar waveguides that are pre-aligned with the gripping element channels.
A planar optical device comprising:
- a first portion including a planar substrate and an optical element and a first plurality of flexible locking grippers mounted on the substrate;
- a second portion including base substrate including a second plurality of flexible locking grippers adapted to cooperate with the first plurality of flexible locking grippers to lock the first portion and the second portion together and a plurality of flexible gripping elements including an optical fiber receiving channel defined by a pair of sidewalls, the channels positioned so that when an optical fiber is secured in the channel, the optical fiber is optically aligned with the optical element.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.