Methods and apparatuses for providing a hermetic sealing system for an optical transceiver module

A method for hermetically sealing a lid of an optical transceiver module to a submount assembly of the optical transceiver module to provide a hermetically-sealed environment in which at least one component attached to a surface of the submount assembly is contained, the method comprising:

• providing a lid, the lid having at least one surface on which one or more elements of a hermetic sealing system are disposed;
• providing a submount assembly, the submount assembly having at least one surface on which one or more elements of the hermetic sealing system are disposed;
• temporarily attaching the lid to the submount assembly in a pre-alignment position by placing at least one of the elements of the hermetic sealing system disposed on the lid in contact with at least one of the elements of the hermetic sealing system disposed on the submount assembly to temporarily attach the lid to the submount assembly and to pre-align the lid with the submount assembly;
• and
• permanently attaching the lid to the submount assembly in a permanent alignment position such that a hermetic seal is formed between the bottom surface of the lid and the top surface of the submount assembly.

A method for preventing cracks from occurring in a dielectric layer of a submount assembly, the method comprising:

• placing a first dielectric layer on a submount assembly substrate;
• forming a patterned metal layer on the first dielectric layer such that edges of the patterned metal layer are tapered;
• and
• covering the patterned metal layer having tapered edges with a second dielectric layer, wherein the tapered edges of the patterned metal layer prevent cracks from occurring in the second dielectric layer at locations at which the second dielectric layer covers the tapered edges of the patterned metal layer.

A method for providing electrical connections to one or more components of an optical transceiver module that are contained within a hermetically-sealed environment without compromising the integrity of the hermetically-sealed environment, the method comprising:

• forming holes in a submount assembly that pass from a bottom surface of the submount assembly through an interior of the submount assembly to a top surface of the submount assembly, the holes in the top surface of the submount assembly being within a hermetically-sealed enclosure;
• filling the holes with a conductive material to form respective conductive vias in the respective holes;
• on the top surface of the submount assembly, placing a material over each of the holes containing the vias to ensure that the hermetically-sealed enclosure remains hermetically sealed;
• and
• making electrical connections between the conductive vias and at least one electrical contact of at least one component attached to the submount assembly and contained within the hermetically-sealed enclosure, wherein the conductive vias are formed in the holes by a plating process by which a plating seed layer is formed in the openings and metal is plated on the seed layer.