Abstract

We design a laser welding machine for fabricating butterfly (BFY) modules with an optical coupling setup that is well suited for rapid prototyping and small-scale production of InP and GaAs-based waveguide-fed photonic components such as diode lasers, semiconductor amplifiers, optical modulators, and optoelectrical ICs (OEICs). The light of these devices is transferred very efficiently into single-mode fibers using integrated tapered lensed ends. In our setup the mechanical adjustment of the fiber-chip coupling is done semiautomatically by a newly designed coupling machine while laser welding performs the fixing of the fiber-chip connection. We found a yield of 47 within a shift of 1.0 μm at the initial welding spot. With additional weld adjustment, it was possible to extend the yield of 67. We introduce, to our knowledge for the first time, an adjustable welding technique, which we call “strain-reducing” welding, which …

Date

2006

Authors

Ulrich HP Fischer, Oliver Krips, Edmund Mu¨ ller, Alexander Jacob

Journal

Optical Engineering

Volume

41

Issue

12

Pages

3221-3229

Publisher

Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers