JP2001208927A - Optical circuit component - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an optical circuit component inexpensive and having stable characteristics capable of reducing the influence of distortion and the deterioration of element characteristics accompanying it when semiconductor optical circuit elements are mounted. SOLUTION: A semiconductor optical circuit 40 is mounted on a sub-mount 50 turning downward a surface 45 on which the semiconductor optical circuit elements 41-44 are formed and is stuck to be mounted by a sticking part 60 which is composed of a sticking part 65 arranged so as to encircle in a batch an important part for a function of respective semiconductor optical circuit elements 41-44 together with the sticking parts 61-64 similar to an conventional one which is served also as electric wiring to the respective semiconductor optical circuit elements 41-44. Thus, distortion exerting on respective semiconductor optical circuit elements 41-44 is uniformized and the influence on the element characteristics is reduced.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to optical communication, optical switching,
The present invention relates to an optical circuit component used for optical information processing and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In optical communication, the market is expected to expand in the future for high-speed transmission in access systems, and optical circuit components introduced into these access systems include conventional trunk line devices. Significant cost reduction is required as compared with. In order to reduce costs, the cost of optical circuit components including semiconductor optical circuit elements typified by semiconductor lasers and light receiving elements indispensable for current optical communication networks has been reduced, and this has become a major factor in cost increase. In addition, it is essential to reduce the mounting cost of the semiconductor optical circuit element.

Since components used in optical communication need to input and output light using an optical fiber, a semiconductor optical circuit element also needs to be connected to the optical fiber.

[0004] As a method of connecting an element to an optical fiber or an element, a method called active alignment is employed in which the state of connection between these elements is monitored, and conditions for obtaining optimum coupling between the element and the optical fiber or the element are searched and fixed. There is. However, in this method, since it is necessary to search for the condition for obtaining the optimum coupling with the optical fiber or the element for each element, a large cost is required for mounting.

On the other hand, there is a method called passive alignment, which omits monitoring of the coupling state and simplifies the alignment by mechanical alignment or the like to reduce the mounting cost. At this time, if electrical wiring is applied to the submount for mounting the element, not only optical mounting but also electrical mounting can be completed at the same time, so the merit of cost reduction is even greater. Becomes

[0006] Currently, relates connected by a passive alignment method, the low cost laser or the like called subscriber based laser, is being sticks prospect of substantially practical. If these techniques can be applied not only to lasers but also to optical circuit components including general semiconductor optical circuit elements, the economic effects can be said to be extremely large.

However, when the passive alignment method is applied to optical circuit components including general semiconductor optical circuit elements as they are, there are some problems such as distortion of the elements and protection of important parts in the function of the elements.

FIG. 1 shows an example of mounting optical circuit components by a passive alignment method. A semiconductor optical circuit 11 including a semiconductor optical circuit element (hereinafter, an optical circuit including at least one semiconductor optical circuit element is referred to as a semiconductor optical circuit in the present invention) 11 is formed with the semiconductor optical circuit element. It is mounted on a submount (substrate) 13 with the surface 12 facing down, and is mounted by bonding with metal solder or a conductive adhesive or the like via respective metal coating portions 14 and 15. The optical fiber 16 is mounted on the submount 13.
Has been implemented. Submount 13 and optical fiber 16
Means that highly accurate positioning of ± 0.5 μm or less can be easily realized.

When performing passive alignment between the semiconductor optical circuit 11 and the optical fiber 16, in order to obtain high coupling efficiency, the substrate needs to have an alignment accuracy of about ± 1 μm in the horizontal / vertical directions.

There are various methods for obtaining this accuracy. In the direction parallel to the substrate, an alignment mark 17 on the semiconductor optical circuit 11 and an alignment mark 18 on the submount 13 are used. It is common to perform optical alignment. In addition, high precision can be obtained by mounting the semiconductor optical circuit 11 with the surface 12 on which the semiconductor optical circuit element is formed on the lower side in the direction perpendicular to the substrate.

Although it is possible to mount the semiconductor optical circuit element with the surface on which the semiconductor optical circuit element is formed on the upper side, it is necessary to separately provide electrical wiring, and from the viewpoint of heat dissipation, It is necessary to process the thinner film, which makes handling difficult, and it is necessary to ensure the accuracy of the film thickness of the substrate to be processed.

[0012]

As described above, in mounting optical circuit components by the passive alignment method, the surface of the semiconductor optical circuit 11 where the semiconductor optical circuit elements are formed is usually covered with the metal coating portion 14. , 15 and submount 1 via metal solder or conductive adhesive, etc.
At this time, since the semiconductor and the dissimilar material are bonded at this time, distortion occurs at the time of mounting due to factors such as stress caused by a difference in thermal expansion coefficient (first).
Problem).

In the case of a small device such as a semiconductor laser as described above, this distortion is not so serious, but an array type semiconductor optical circuit in which a plurality of semiconductor optical circuit elements are arranged,
When mounting a semiconductor optical circuit equipped with a large-sized element such as a Mach-Zehnder interferometer element or an arrayed waveguide grating element, disregard the element characteristics such as wavelength characteristics due to the influence of distortion. Can not be done.

In particular, as shown in FIG. 2, in a conventional optical circuit component, strain is concentrated at a specific location due to the arrangement of a metal coating portion and an adhesive portion made of a metal solder or a conductive adhesive. There has been a problem in reproducibility, such as variations in element characteristics between elements. In FIG. 2,
21 is a semiconductor optical circuit, 22 is a submount, 23 is an adhesive portion, 24 is stress, and 25 is distortion.

As a second problem, there is a problem of sealing with a resin material. It is desirable that these components are finally sealed with a resin material such as an adhesive from the viewpoint of element reliability. In this case, as shown in FIG. 3, in a conventional optical circuit component, a resin material may penetrate into a semiconductor optical circuit element portion of a semiconductor optical circuit due to a capillary phenomenon. Due to the effect of the resin that has penetrated to the part, the element characteristics may deteriorate,
There has been a problem that the resin partially distorts the semiconductor optical circuit element. In FIG. 3, 31 is a semiconductor optical circuit, 32 is a submount, 33 is an optical fiber, 34
Is an adhesive portion, 35 is a sealing resin material, and 35a is a resin material that has permeated into the semiconductor optical circuit element.

In the above description, an example in which a submount is used has been described. Instead of the submount, an optical circuit component in which a semiconductor optical circuit is mounted on an optical circuit using silica glass is often used. . In mounting by the passive alignment method, even when using the submount,
A similar problem occurs when an optical circuit is used.

An object of the present invention is to provide an inexpensive and stable optical circuit component which is less affected by distortion during mounting of a semiconductor optical circuit element.

[0018]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a semiconductor optical circuit having at least one semiconductor optical circuit element is bonded to a submount or an optical circuit made of a different material. The optical circuit component is characterized in that an adhesive portion is arranged so as to surround at least a part of the semiconductor optical circuit element. As a result, it is possible to reduce the influence of distortion generated due to a difference in thermal expansion coefficient and the like.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the adhesive portion is arranged so as to surround at least a part of each of the plurality of semiconductor optical circuit elements. Thereby, the influence of distortion can be further reduced.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the bonding portion disposed so as to surround at least a part of the semiconductor optical circuit element is formed so as to pass through the slab waveguide portion or the buried waveguide portion of the semiconductor optical circuit device. It is characterized by being arranged. As a result, the influence of distortion can be effectively reduced while preventing the bonded portion from deteriorating element characteristics.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the shape of the bonding portion is circular. As a result, it is possible to prevent the distortion from being concentrated at a specific place, and it is possible to more effectively reduce the influence of the distortion.

As described above, according to the present invention, the influence of distortion at the time of mounting a semiconductor optical circuit element can be reduced, so that the element characteristics are not deteriorated, the yield can be increased, and inexpensive and stable characteristics can be obtained. An optical circuit component can be provided.

[0023]

FIG. 4 shows a first embodiment of an optical circuit component according to the present invention.
In the figure, 40 is a semiconductor optical circuit, 50 is a submount or an optical circuit such as silica glass (hereinafter, referred to as a submount for simplicity),
Reference numeral 60 denotes an adhesive portion.

As shown in FIG. 1B, a plurality of, here four, semiconductor optical circuit elements 41, 4 are provided.
2, 43 and 44, and the semiconductor optical circuit elements 41 to 44
With the surface 45 on which the
The semiconductor optical circuit 40 and the submount 5
No. 0 and are bonded and mounted by a metal coating portion and a bonding portion 60 made of metal solder or a conductive adhesive or the like.

Here, since the submount 50 is generally made of a different kind of material from the semiconductor optical circuit 40, distortion occurs during mounting. If the distortion is non-uniform, problems such as variations in element characteristics occur.

Therefore, the bonding portion 60 is used together with the bonding portions 61, 62, 63, and 64 similar to the conventional ones, which also serve as electric wiring to the semiconductor optical circuit elements 41 to 44, and the semiconductor optical circuit elements 41 to 44. By constituting the semiconductor optical circuit elements 41 to 44 with the adhesive parts 65 arranged so as to enclose the functionally important parts of the semiconductor optical elements collectively, distortions applied to the semiconductor optical circuit elements 41 to 44 are uniformed, and the influence on the element characteristics is reduced. I am doing so.

FIG. 5 shows a second embodiment of the optical circuit component of the present invention. In this embodiment, an adhesive portion arranged so as to surround at least a part of the semiconductor optical circuit element in the first embodiment is shown. An example is shown in which individual semiconductor optical circuit elements are arranged so as to individually surround them. That is, in the drawing, reference numeral 66 denotes an adhesive portion which is disposed so as to individually surround functionally important portions of the semiconductor optical circuit elements 41 to 44, whereby the influence of distortion can be shielded. Problems such as distortion being concentrated on a portion can be solved. In addition,
Other configurations and operations are the same as those of the first embodiment.

FIG. 6 shows an optical circuit component according to a third embodiment of the present invention. Here, an example in which an arrayed waveguide grating element is used as a semiconductor optical circuit element is shown.

Array waveguide grating elements and Mach-Zehnder interferometer elements are susceptible to distortion because of the use of element interference phenomena. In general, since the size of the element is large, the element is more susceptible to distortion and requires special attention in mounting.

In FIG. 6, one arrayed waveguide grating element 71 is shown.
Arrayed grating element 7 of semiconductor optical circuit 70 having
1 shows the surface 72 on which the semiconductor optical circuit 70 and the submount (not shown) are mounted on a submount (not shown) with the surface 72 facing downward, and It is mounted by bonding with a bonding portion 80 made of a conductive adhesive or the like.

Since the arrayed waveguide portion 71a is very important in the arrayed waveguide grating device 71, the adhesive portion 80 is arranged so as to surround at least a part of the semiconductor optical circuit device.
Are arranged so as to surround the array waveguide portion 71a. In the present embodiment, as described in claim 3, the bonding portion 80 is arranged so as to pass through the slab waveguide portion 71b of the arrayed waveguide grating element 71.

The bonding portion 80 has a function of preventing deterioration of device characteristics. Usually, the semiconductor optical circuit and the submount are
They are bonded by metal solder or a conductive adhesive. However, when these materials come close to the waveguide forming the semiconductor optical circuit element, a large loss may be exhibited. In particular,
In a high mesa waveguide structure used for an arrayed waveguide grating element or the like, the effect is significant, and it is necessary to dispose the bonding portion 80 avoiding the high mesa waveguide portion. For this reason, as shown in the figure, the adhesive portion 80 is arranged so as to pass through the slab waveguide portion 71b.

When the input / output waveguide 71c of the arrayed waveguide grating element 71 is composed of a buried waveguide, the input / output waveguide 71c passes over the input / output waveguide 71c instead of the slab waveguide portion 71b. The bonding portion 80 may be arranged.

FIG. 7 shows an optical circuit component according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention. Here, an example in which the shape of the bonding portion in the third embodiment is circular is shown. That is, in the drawing, reference numeral 81 denotes a circular bonding portion which surrounds the arrayed waveguide portion 71a and is arranged so as to pass through the slab waveguide portion 71b, whereby the influence of distortion is uniform inside the bonded circular shape. And the effect of distortion can be prevented from being concentrated on a specific portion. Therefore, by arranging elements that are easily affected by distortion, such as an arrayed waveguide grating element and a Mach-Zehnder interferometer element, inside this circular shape, the influence of distortion can be reduced. The other configuration and operation are the same as those in the third embodiment.

In the first to fourth embodiments described above, the adhesive portion disposed so as to surround at least a part of the semiconductor optical circuit element has a function of sealing an important part of the semiconductor optical circuit element. Therefore, it is desirable to form the electrode without a break. However, even when there is a break for providing a lead-out opening for an electrode, the effect of avoiding concentration of distortion can be expected, which is effective.

In the above description, the object on which the semiconductor optical circuit is mounted is called a submount for the sake of simplicity. However, not only the submount but also a different type of auxiliary optical circuit for mounting such as silica glass. It is clear that the same effect can be obtained even when mounting on a material.

[0037]

As described above, according to the present invention,
It is possible to reduce the influence of the distortion at the time of mounting the semiconductor optical circuit element and the deterioration of the element characteristics accompanying the distortion, and it is possible to provide an optical circuit component having stable characteristics at low cost.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of how an optical circuit component is mounted by a passive alignment method.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a first problem of a conventional optical circuit component.

FIG. 3 is a view for explaining a second problem of the conventional optical circuit component.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram showing a first embodiment of the optical circuit component of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram showing a second embodiment of the optical circuit component of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram showing an optical circuit component according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram showing an optical circuit component according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

40, 70: semiconductor optical circuit, 41 to 44: semiconductor optical circuit element, 45: semiconductor optical circuit element formation surface, 50: submount, 60: adhesive part, 61 to 64: adhesive part similar to the conventional one, 65: plural An adhesive portion enclosing the semiconductor optical circuit elements collectively; 66: an adhesive portion individually enclosing a plurality of semiconductor optical circuit elements; 71: an arrayed waveguide grating element; 71a: an arrayed waveguide portion; 71b: a slab waveguide portion; 71c: input / output waveguide, 72: array waveguide grating element forming surface, 8
0: adhesive part surrounding the array waveguide part, 90: circular adhesive part.

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Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An optical circuit component comprising at least one semiconductor optical circuit element and a semiconductor optical circuit having at least one semiconductor optical circuit element adhered to a submount or an optical circuit made of a different material so as to surround at least a part of the semiconductor optical circuit element. An optical circuit component having an adhesive portion disposed thereon. 2. The optical circuit component according to claim 1, wherein an adhesive portion is arranged so as to surround at least a part of each of the plurality of semiconductor optical circuit elements. 3. The semiconductor optical circuit device according to claim 2, wherein the adhesive portion surrounding at least a part of the semiconductor optical circuit device is disposed so as to pass through a slab waveguide portion or a buried waveguide portion of the semiconductor optical circuit device. Item 3. The optical circuit component according to item 1 or 2. 4. The optical circuit component according to claim 1, wherein the bonding portion has a circular shape.