JP2013120308A - Manufacturing method of v-groove substrate and optical device using v-groove substrate - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a manufacturing method of a V-groove substrate that can be easily manufactured and does not require an alignment process, and an optical device using the V-groove substrate.SOLUTION: A manufacturing method of a V-groove substrate 1 includes: disposing a photocurable resin 3 on a substrate 2; disposing on the top surface of the photocurable resin 3 a photomask 4 having patterns 41, 41 in which narrow slit-like holes corresponding to the shape of V-grooves 11, 11 are made; further disposing an equilateral triangle prism on the top face of the photomask 4 if needed; irradiating the photomask 4 with radiation light 6 directly or through the equilateral triangle prism in an oblique direction, and curing the photocurable resin 3 by the radiation light 6 having passed through the patterns 41, 41; and removing the photocurable resin 3 uncured in the V-grooves 11, 11 because of no irradiation with the radiation light 6. In this way, the V-groove substrate 1 can be manufactured.

Description

  The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a V-groove substrate for easily connecting multi-core optical fibers such as optical waveguides and an optical device using the V-groove substrate. The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a V-groove substrate that can be easily manufactured without using materials and the like, and an optical device using the V-groove substrate.

  With the rapid spread of the Internet, the amount of information transmitted over optical fibers has increased dramatically. In order to cope with this, a WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing) system that multiplexes optical fibers by simultaneously using a plurality of optical signals having different wavelengths is used. In this WDM system, a plurality of light beams λ1 to λn having different wavelengths are combined into one by using an optical multiplexer, which is optically amplified by an optical amplifier and incident on one end of one optical fiber. And after taking out light from the other end of this optical fiber and amplifying it with an optical amplifier, it is demultiplexed into the original light of (lambda) 1- (lambda) n with an optical demultiplexer.

  When a plurality of light beams having different wavelengths λ1 to λn are transmitted using a plurality of optical fibers, and these optical fibers are connected to an optical communication module, an optical waveguide, or the like, a fiber array is used. An optical communication component called a “V-groove substrate” is used in the fiber array to align a plurality of optical fibers. This V-groove substrate is provided with V-shaped long grooves (V-grooves) at regular intervals on the surface of a plate-like substrate formed of silicon, quartz, Pyrex (registered trademark), zirconia or the like, and an optical fiber is provided in each of the long grooves. One optical fiber is arranged at a time and each optical fiber is positioned and aligned (alignment).

  In order to couple the optical fiber and the optical waveguide with high efficiency so as to reduce transmission loss, it is necessary to process the V-groove with high accuracy. Therefore, for example, Patent Document 1 has been proposed as a V-groove substrate that can form a V-groove with high accuracy, achieve long-term stability, and can be manufactured at low cost. The V-groove substrate includes a V-groove base made of a glass material on which a plurality of V-grooves for aligning optical fiber core wires is formed, and a coating receiver made of a glass material on which a coating portion of the optical fiber is placed. The base is fused to the substrate body made of a glass material for adjusting the overall height of the product.

JP 2011-90259 A

  However, the conventional V-groove substrate shown in Patent Document 1 described above is expensive because it uses a glass material, and the alignment for aligning the optical axis is a post-process, so that it takes time to complete the product. There is a problem that requires.

  Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of such problems, and a method of manufacturing a V-groove substrate and a V-groove substrate that can eliminate the need for alignment processing and can reduce the price without using an expensive glass material. An object of the present invention is to provide an optical device using the above.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the invention described in claim 1 is directed to a method of manufacturing a V-groove substrate having one or more V-grooves for guiding optical connection by guiding one or more optical fibers. Disposing a curable resin on the upper surface of the substrate; disposing a photomask having a predetermined pattern formed on the upper surface of the photocurable resin so as to correspond to the one or the plurality of V-grooves; By irradiating light from above the photomask in an oblique direction to the photomask, the light is allowed to pass obliquely in a predetermined pattern to form a V-shaped unirradiated portion, and in the region irradiated with light A step of curing the photocurable resin, and a step of forming one or a plurality of V-grooves by removing an uncured photocurable resin in an unirradiated portion that has not been irradiated with light. .

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the present invention according to claim 2 is the method of manufacturing a V-groove substrate according to claim 1, wherein an optical prism is disposed above the photomask, and the photomask is formed from above the optical prism. By irradiating parallel light toward the photomask, the photomask is irradiated with light from an oblique direction, and light is passed obliquely within a predetermined pattern to form a V-shaped unirradiated portion. And

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the present invention described in claim 3 is the method of manufacturing a V-groove substrate according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the pattern formed in the photomask is a slit-like or elongated rectangular shape. It is characterized by a taper shape whose width is gradually narrowed toward the other end side.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the present invention described in claim 4 includes a V-groove substrate manufactured by the method for manufacturing a V-groove substrate described in any one of claims 1 to 3, and includes one or a plurality of V-groove substrates. An optical device comprising optical waveguides connected or integrally formed corresponding to the V-grooves of the optical device, wherein one or a plurality of optical fibers are inserted by inserting one or a plurality of optical fibers along the one or a plurality of V-grooves, respectively. An optical device is provided in which optical connection is performed in a state where fibers are aligned.

According to the method for manufacturing a V-groove substrate according to the present invention, there is an effect that the V-groove can be formed with low cost and high accuracy by a simple method without using glass or silicon.
In addition, the optical device according to the present invention is advantageous in that the price can be reduced and the alignment process between the optical waveguide and the V-groove substrate can be made unnecessary.

It is a perspective view of the V-groove board | substrate manufactured by 1st embodiment of the manufacturing method of the V-groove board | substrate which concerns on this invention. (A), (b) is a front view which shows the example of a shape of V-groove in a V-groove board | substrate. (A)-(d) is process drawing which shows 1st embodiment of the manufacturing method of the V-groove board | substrate which concerns on this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows 2nd embodiment of the manufacturing method of the V-groove board | substrate which concerns on this invention. (A) is a perspective view of the V-groove board | substrate manufactured by 3rd embodiment of the V-groove board | substrate manufacturing method based on this invention, (b) is 3rd embodiment of the V-groove board | substrate manufacturing method concerning this invention. It is a top view of the photomask to be used. It is a perspective view of the optical device using the V-groove board | substrate which concerns on this invention. It is a front view which shows the structure of the optical waveguide used for the optical device of FIG. It is a top view which shows the shape of the photomask used for manufacture of an optical device.

Hereinafter, the manufacturing method of the V-groove substrate and the optical device using the V-groove substrate according to the present invention will be described in detail based on a preferred embodiment.
[Configuration of V-groove substrate]
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a V-groove substrate manufactured by the first embodiment of the V-groove substrate manufacturing method according to the present invention. In the illustrated V-groove substrate 1, a plurality of (four in this embodiment) V-grooves 11, 11 parallel to each other are arranged in parallel on the upper surface side of the main body 10 formed by curing a photocurable resin. In this way, they are arranged and formed. The interval between the V-grooves 11 and 11 is set corresponding to the interval between a plurality of cores provided in an optical waveguide, which will be described later, coupled to the main body 10.

  The material for forming the V-groove substrate 1 is a photo-curing resin having a property that a portion irradiated with light is cured, and a portion not irradiated with light is left to be cured, for example, ultraviolet light. An ultraviolet curable resin that is cured by (UV) can be used. Of course, it is not limited to the ultraviolet curable resin, and any photo-curable resin may be used as long as it is excellent in heat resistance, adhesion and stability and can be cured in a short time. . Further, the shape of the V-grooves 11, 11, for example, the width and depth of the opening, differ depending on the diameter size of the optical fibers 30 positioned in the V-grooves 11, 11, the arrangement interval between them, etc. When the optical fibers 30 having an outer diameter of 125 μm are arranged at a pitch of 250 μm, as shown in FIG. 2A, the opening width is 195 μm, the depth is 125 μm, and the inclination angle of the V grooves 11 and 11 with respect to the vertical direction is As shown in FIG. 2B, an inverted trapezoidal shape with an opening width of 210 μm, a depth of 150 μm, and an inclination angle of the V grooves 11 and 11 with respect to the vertical direction is 25 °. There are things. With such a structure, the center of the optical fiber 30 can be arranged at the center in the depth direction of the V grooves 11 and 11. These are merely examples, and in any case, the bottom surfaces of the V-grooves 11 and 11 are open, but may be closed without opening. The V-groove substrate 1 having such a configuration is manufactured by the method described below.

[First embodiment of manufacturing method of V-groove substrate]
3A to 3E are process diagrams showing a first embodiment of a method for manufacturing a V-groove substrate according to the present invention. Hereinafter, a first embodiment of a method for manufacturing a V-groove substrate according to the present invention will be described based on FIGS. 3 (a) to 3 (e). First, as shown in FIG. 3A, a substrate 2 for forming a V-groove substrate 1 is prepared. As the substrate 2, for example, a flat thin glass plate or the like can be used. Then, the photocurable resin 3 is disposed in a predetermined range on the substrate 2 by dropping or the like. Next, a photomask 4 having an elongated slit-shaped opening as shown in FIG. 3B is prepared. Here, the photomask 4 shown in FIG. 3B is a thin rectangular member having a length corresponding to the length of the V-grooves 11 and 11 to be formed on the V-groove substrate 1 on a thin plate-like member that blocks the irradiation light 6. Slit-like patterns 41 and 41 (openings) are formed. The patterns 41 and 41 arranged at both ends of the photomask 4 are formed to have a wider opening width than the patterns 41 and 41 arranged therebetween. Such a photomask 4 is arranged on the photocurable resin 3 as shown in FIG. 3C, and the photocurable resin 3 is pushed down to form a plate shape.

  Next, a light source (not shown) that generates the irradiation light 6 is installed on the upper side of the photomask 4, and the irradiation light 6 is irradiated toward the photomask 4 from above as shown in FIG. At this time, the irradiation light 6 is irradiated so as to be emitted from the pattern 41 opened in the shape of an elongated slit of the photomask 4 by entering the photomask 4 so as to intersect from the left and right oblique directions. When the irradiation light 6 is incident on the patterns 41 and 41 of the photomask 4, the irradiation light 6 is irradiated to the photocurable resin 3 in the substrate 2 from an oblique direction. Irradiation light 6 is not applied to the inverted triangular portion of the base. Therefore, this portion of the photocurable resin 3 is not cured, and the other portions of the photocurable resin 3 are cured. Irradiation of the irradiation light 6 is continued until the photocurable resin 3 reaches the curing completion time defined in the specification. Finally, by irradiating the irradiation light 6 from a direction perpendicular to the photomask 4, both side ends of the V-groove substrate 1 can be made vertical end surfaces. When the irradiation of the irradiation light 6 is completed, the light source that generates the irradiation light 6 is turned off, and then the photomask 4 is removed. Then, the V-grooves 11 are formed by removing the portion of the photo-curable resin 3 which is shielded by the photomask 4 and is not cured without being irradiated with the irradiation light 6 with a solvent. Finally, if the periphery of the photocurable resin 3 is cut into a rectangle and shaped, or if vertical irradiation light is finally applied, the V-groove substrate 1 shown in FIG. 3E is completed. As can be considered from the formation process of the V-grooves 11 and 11 as described above, various changes can be made by appropriately changing the length and width size of the light-shielding pattern (pattern 41) of the photomask 4 or the spacing between the patterns 41 and 41. The structure of the V-shaped grooves 11 and 11 having the shape can be formed.

[Second embodiment of manufacturing method of V-groove substrate]
FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing a second embodiment of the method for manufacturing a V-groove substrate according to the present invention. The second embodiment is obtained by replacing the process shown in FIG. 3D with the process shown in FIG. 4 in the first embodiment described above. That is, an optical prism 5 is disposed on the photomask 4 and the optical prism 5 is irradiated with irradiation light 6 from above as shown in FIG. Thereby, it becomes possible to manufacture with one light source, and the angle of light traveling into the photo-curing resin can be changed by changing the shape of the optical prism 5 as it is. As the optical prism 5, for example, an equilateral triangular prism or a right isosceles triangular prism can be used, and other optical prisms 5 can be based on the angle of light that is desired to pass through the photocurable resin 3. .

[Third embodiment of manufacturing method of V-groove substrate]
Next, a third embodiment of the method for manufacturing a V-groove substrate according to the present invention will be described. FIG. 5A is a perspective view of a V-groove substrate manufactured by the third embodiment of the V-groove substrate manufacturing method according to the present invention. The V-groove substrate 8 shown in the figure is different from the groove shape in which the upper opening width of the V-grooves 11 and 11 is formed constant in the longitudinal direction in the first embodiment. 11 has a tapered shape in which the width gradually decreases as it goes from one end side to the other end side, that is, V-grooves 81 and 81 that increase in width toward the optical fiber insertion side. The manufacturing method of the third embodiment generally follows the process shown in FIG. 3, but uses a photomask 9 shown in FIG. 5B instead of the photomask 4 shown in FIG. For example, the photomask 9 has a tapered shape that gradually becomes narrower from one end side to the other end side, instead of the elongated rectangular patterns 41 and 41 of the photomask 4 in the first embodiment described above. Is different.

[Effect of each embodiment]
According to the manufacturing method of the V-groove substrate according to the first embodiment, the V-grooves 11 and 11 can be formed only by irradiating the photocurable resin 3 with the irradiation light 6, so that the manufacturing method is easy and the manufacturing is performed. There is an effect that the cost can be reduced.

  According to the manufacturing method of the V-groove substrate according to the second embodiment, since the direction of the irradiation light 6 applied to the photomask 4 can be made the same by using the optical prism 5, the configuration of the light source can be made. There is an effect that it can be simplified.

  According to the method of manufacturing the V-groove substrate according to the third embodiment, the V grooves 81 and 81 are tapered from the wide side of the pattern (from the right direction in FIG. 5) by making the longitudinal direction of the V grooves 81 and 81 tapered. As a result, it is possible to further facilitate the insertion of an optical fiber or the like inserted into the optical fiber and to prevent misalignment in optical connection.

[Configuration of optical device using V-groove substrate]
Next, an optical device 100 using the V-groove substrate manufactured by the V-groove substrate manufacturing method according to the present invention (hereinafter simply referred to as “optical device 100”) will be described. FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a preferred embodiment of the optical device 100. The illustrated optical device 100 generally has a structure in which the optical waveguide 7 shown in FIG. 7 is connected to the V-groove substrate 1 shown in FIG. The optical device 100 includes a V-groove in which the shape of the V-groove substrate 1 is U-shaped so that the cores 73 and 73 of the optical waveguide 7 can be accurately aligned with the V-grooves 11 and 11 of the V-groove substrate 1. A substrate 50 (see FIG. 6) is used. That is, the V-groove substrate 50 is provided with a recess in which one side of the V-groove substrate 1 shown in FIG. Then, the optical fibers 30 and 30 are inserted into the plurality of (four in this case) V grooves 11 and 11 of the V groove substrate 50 from the right direction to the left direction in FIG. Thereby, the optical connection is performed in a state in which the optical fibers 30 and 30 and the cores 73 and 73 of the optical device 100 are aligned without causing a positional shift. Therefore, alignment work for alignment becomes unnecessary.

  As shown in FIG. 7, the optical waveguide 7 includes a clad layer 72 provided on a substrate 71, and a plurality of cores 73 and 73 provided at predetermined intervals in the clad layer 72. The specific manufacturing method is as follows. First, a clad layer 72 is formed on a substrate 71, then cores 73, 73 are formed at predetermined intervals on the upper surface, and the upper surfaces and side surfaces of the cores 73, 73 are covered with the clad layer 72. It depends on the covering process. For example, the cores 73 have a cross-sectional size of 50 × 50 μm. The optical waveguide 7 shown in FIG. 6 is separated from the V-groove substrate 50, and the optical device 100 is formed by positioning and connecting the optical waveguide 7 to the recess. However, the optical device 100 can be formed by forming the V-groove substrate 50 and the optical waveguide 7 integrally without being separated. An example of the configuration will be described below.

  Specifically, a photomask 40 as shown in FIG. 8 is used in place of the photomask 4. The photomask 40 has substantially the same configuration as that of the photomask 40 in the first embodiment described above. However, as shown in FIG. 8, a pair of L-shaped alignment marks are formed at predetermined locations on the photomask 40. 42 and 42 are provided. The alignment marks 42 and 42 correspond to the corner positions on the front side (right side in FIG. 6) of the optical waveguide 7. The manufacturing method will be described. The optical waveguide 7 is pressed from one side to the right side on one side of the photocurable resin 3 before entering the step of FIG. Next, in the process of FIG. 3C, as shown in FIG. 8, the photomask 40 is positioned so that the alignment mark 42 is aligned with the tip of the optical waveguide 7 (the two corners on the right side of FIGS. 6 and 8). 3D to 3E are sequentially performed, although the optical fiber 30 is used here, but other transmission media such as an optical waveguide, an LD array, and an optical multiplexing component are used. Wave devices, optical components, optical circuits, various optical elements having other configurations, and the like can be used.

[Effect of Embodiment of Optical Device Using V-Groove Substrate]
According to the optical device 100, the optical waveguide 7 and the V-groove substrate 50 made of a photo-curing resin are integrated by optical connection or structurally, so that the optical device 100 can be manufactured at low cost without using glass or silicon. There is an effect that can be eliminated.

  The optical device 100 can form the optical waveguide 7 and the V-groove substrate 50 integrally by using the photomask 40 having the alignment mark 42 as shown in FIG. There is an effect that a connecting step is unnecessary.

  As described above, the preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail. However, the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiment, and within the scope of the gist of the present invention described in the claims, Needless to say, various modifications and changes are possible.

  For example, instead of the optical waveguide 7, an optical element such as an LD (semiconductor laser diode) array, an optical communication module, or a multi-core optical fiber can be used.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Groove substrate 2 Substrate 3 Photocurable resin 4 Photomask 5 Optical prism 6 Irradiation light 7 Optical waveguide 8 V groove substrate 9 Photomask 10 Main body 11 V groove 30 Optical fiber 40 Photomask 41 Pattern 42 Alignment mark 50 V groove substrate 71 Substrate 72 Clad layer 73 Core 80 Body 81 V-groove 91 Pattern 100 Optical device

Claims (4)

In a method of manufacturing a V-groove substrate having one or more V-grooves for guiding optical connection by guiding one or more optical fibers,
Placing a photocurable resin on the top surface of the substrate;
Disposing a photomask having a predetermined pattern formed on the upper surface of the photocurable resin so as to correspond to the one or the plurality of V-grooves;
By irradiating light from above the photomask obliquely with respect to the photomask, light is obliquely passed through the predetermined pattern to form a V-shaped unirradiated portion, and the light is irradiated Curing the photocurable resin in the formed region;
Forming one or a plurality of V-grooves by removing the uncured photocurable resin of the unirradiated portion that has not been irradiated with the light;
The manufacturing method of the V-groove board | substrate characterized by including. In the manufacturing method of the V-groove board | substrate of Claim 1,
An optical prism is arranged above the photomask, and the photomask is irradiated with light from an oblique direction by irradiating parallel light toward the photomask from above the optical prism. A method of manufacturing a V-groove substrate characterized in that light is passed obliquely to form a V-shaped unirradiated portion. In the manufacturing method of the V-groove board | substrate of Claim 1 or 2,
The method of manufacturing a V-groove substrate, wherein the pattern formed in the photomask is formed into a slit having a long and narrow rectangle or a taper having a width that gradually decreases toward the other end. An optical waveguide comprising a V-groove substrate manufactured by the method for manufacturing a V-groove substrate according to any one of claims 1 to 3, and connected or integrally formed corresponding to the one or the plurality of V-grooves. An optical device comprising:
An optical device, wherein one or a plurality of optical fibers are inserted along the one or a plurality of V grooves, respectively, so that the optical connection is performed with the one or a plurality of optical fibers being aligned.

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