Splicing optical fibers to photonic integrated circuits

A method, comprising:

• aligning each of a plurality of optical fibers for coupling to a photonic integrated circuit (PIC), comprising:
• detecting transmission from each respective optical fiber to the PIC using a probe, and aligning the respective optical fiber based on the detected transmission;
• and
• coupling each of the plurality of optical fibers directly to the PIC using an epoxy free and catalyst free attachment, comprising:
• identifying a failure in coupling a first optical fiber, of the plurality of optical fibers, to a first redundant waveguide on the PIC;
• and
• based on the identified failure, coupling the first optical fiber to a second redundant waveguide on the PIC, wherein the first and second redundant waveguides are configured to provide an optical signal to a same endpoint on the PIC.

A system, comprising:

• a photonic integrated circuit (PIC);
• and
• a plurality of optical fibers individually coupled to the PIC using an epoxy free and catalyst free attachment and without using a fiber array unit (FAU),
• wherein each of the plurality of optical fibers is configured to be individually aligned with the PIC during coupling of the optical fibers to the PIC, and
• wherein the each of the plurality of optical fibers is aligned with the PIC using a probe to detect feedback from a respective optical fiber to the PIC.