JP4740040B2 - Optical communication module and manufacturing method thereof - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention is an optical communication module mainly used for two-way use, and in particular, components in portable devices that are becoming increasingly multifunctional, such as portable telephones, which have been popularized in recent years. As a result, a small and reliable connection can be made even for high-speed signals, and a great effect can be obtained.

  FIG. 5 shows an example of the configuration of a conventional optical module 90 of this type, and this optical module 90 has a configuration in which an inner case 91 and an outer case 92 are detachable by a hook 91a and a hooking hole 92a. In the inner case 91, a light-emitting element or a light-receiving element (both not shown) is incorporated, and an IC for controlling the light-emitting element and the light-receiving element is incorporated if necessary. Terminals 93 are provided for mounting on a printed circuit board or the like.

  The end of the inner case 91 to which the outer case 92 is attached is provided with, for example, a lens 94 for taking light into the light receiving element, and holes 95a and 95b having appropriate depths at two locations. Is provided so as to maintain an accurate positional relationship with the lens 94.

  An optical fiber 80 is passed through the other outer case 92, and the tip of the optical fiber 80 is disposed so as to face the lens 94 when attached to the inner case 91. At the same time, holes (not shown) are provided in the same position as the holes 95a and 95b with respect to the lens 94 on the inner case 91 side, and two pins 70 for fitting into these holes are prepared separately. Has been.

Therefore, when the outer case 92 is attached to the inner case 91 and, for example, light transmitted through the optical fiber 80 is converted into an electric signal, first, two pins 70 are inserted into the holes of the outer case 92 at one end. If the other end of the pin 70 is inserted into the two holes 95a and 95b of the inner case, the lens 94 and the optical fiber 80 face each other and can be aligned.
JP 09-145961 A

  However, since the optical module 90 having the above-described conventional configuration requires a separate pin when it is removed, it is necessary to consider the preparation of spare parts in preparation for loss, and assembly. However, it is necessary to insert / remove each time disassembling, and even if one side is fixed, the number of assembling steps increases and the problem is complicated.

  Also, in the case where the lens 94 is provided on a flat surface like the inner case 91, if two lenses for input and output are provided and the number of optical fibers 80 passing through the outer case 92 is also two, the input As a result, the output interferes and the signal quality may be lowered.

  As a means for adjusting the position of the lens 94 and the optical fiber more accurately, the light is sent from the optical fiber 80 side so that the output from the IC via the lens is maximized, or the light is sent from the light emitting element. There is a method called active alignment in which radiation is adjusted so that the light incident on the optical fiber 80 is maximized, and is fixed at a position where the maximum value can be obtained. It is difficult to adopt for consumer equipment due to high cost.

According to the present invention, as a specific means for solving the alignment problem that has occurred in the optical module described above, a distance maintaining fiber is connected and sandwiched between the optical fibers so that a predetermined distance is maintained. An optical communication module having an optical element package part in which light receiving and emitting elements are attached to an element substrate in the vicinity of an end of a single optical fiber, and the element substrate part of the optical element package is shielded between each of the optical fibers. plates protrudes through hole is provided above the light shielding plate having a substantially same diameter as the core of the distance maintaining fiber with the light shielding plate side notch for mating with the thickness of the gap retaining Ziv Aiba is provided The spacing fiber on the optical fiber side is provided with a fiber-side notch that fits the width of the light shielding plate, and the core of the spacing fiber is provided in the through hole. By communicating with the gap-maintaining fiber and the through-hole optically and a is countercurrent and the light shielding plate side notch said fiber-side notch portion fitted to each other, and the optical element package and the optical fiber The problem is solved by providing an optical communication module characterized in that positioning is performed.

  According to the present invention, a light shielding plate protruding between the receiving optical fiber and the transmitting optical fiber is provided, and a cut is provided in the light shielding plate, and the optical fiber is attached by fitting using the cut. The two fibers for reception and transmission can be mounted accurately in a single mounting process, and the mounting accuracy can be easily checked. There is an effect.

  Below, this invention is demonstrated in detail based on embodiment shown in a figure. 1 is a first embodiment of an optical communication module according to the present invention. An optical communication module 1 of the first embodiment includes an optical element package unit 10 and an optical element package unit 10. And an optical fiber 20 to be attached.

  Here, first, the optical element package unit 10 according to the present invention will be described. The optical element package unit 10 is provided on the surface of the optical element package unit 10 on the side where the optical fiber 20 is attached. A light shielding plate 11 projects from the center, and a light shielding plate-side notch 11 a is provided at the tip of the light shielding plate 11.

  A lens 12 is provided on the surface of the optical element package unit 10 on the side where the optical fiber 20 is attached, at a position corresponding to the distance between the two optical fibers 21 attached to the element substrate 13 of the optical element package unit 10. A light receiving element such as a photodiode and a light emitting element such as an LED are respectively provided on the lens 12 portion of the element substrate portion 13.

  The optical fiber 20 may be an optical fiber of the same kind or a smaller diameter fiber 22 (glass fiber) between a pair of relatively large diameter optical fibers 21 (for example, plastic fibers) used for optical communication. A predetermined interval is obtained by sandwiching the number. Therefore, the small-diameter fiber 22 does not transmit and receive signals, and functions as a spacing fiber.

  This is an effective method not only for giving a predetermined interval to the optical fiber 21 on the large diameter side, but also for increasing the flexibility and flatness. In the present invention, the large-diameter optical fibers 21 are connected by an odd number of small-diameter optical fibers 22, and the central small-diameter optical fiber 22 is shortened by means such as shortening the length. 20a is formed.

  At this time, the light shielding plate side cutout portion 11a and the fiber side cutout portion 20a have the same cutout width as the thickness of the mating side to be fitted to each other. That is, the light shielding plate side cutout portion 11a has the same cutout width D1 as the outer diameter of the small-diameter optical fiber 22, and the fiber side cutout portion 20a has the cutout width D2 of the light shielding plate 11 plate. It is the same as the thickness.

  In addition, a through hole 11b having substantially the same diameter as the core of the small-diameter optical fiber 22 fitted in the light-shielding part-side notch 11a is provided at the center of the light-shielding part-side notch 11a of the light-shielding plate 11. Is provided. By doing so, the large-diameter optical fiber 21 is set at a predetermined position with respect to the lens 12 by fitting the light-shielding portion-side notch 11a and the fiber-side notch 20a.

  2 and 3 show the optical communication module 1 configured to perform bidirectional optical communication as described above. FIG. 2 is a plan view and FIG. 3 is a side view. Conventionally, a distance D3 from the center of the transmitting lens to the center of the receiving lens is required to be about 1.5 mm in order to prevent light leakage and electromagnetic interference between elements. By providing the light shielding plate 11, it is possible to approach to about 1 mm, and miniaturization is possible (see FIG. 2), and the compatibility with portable devices and the like is further improved.

  In addition, with the configuration of the present invention, the man-hours required to fit the light shielding plate side notch portion 11a and the fiber side notch portion 20a without using a measuring device such as a light meter, which is called passive alignment. For example, an optical communication module that can produce a set of optical communication modules 1 having a transmission / reception function and is effective in improving productivity, but is generally produced by passive alignment. No. 1 is said to be difficult to confirm the amount of eccentricity after assembly, and tends to increase product variation.

  Here, in the optical communication module 1 of the present invention, the light shielding plate 11 is provided with the through hole 11b, so that the laser beam is irradiated from one of the through holes 11b as shown in FIG. By measuring the amount of light at the edge, quality can be easily confirmed even with passive alignment, and products with little variation can be supplied to the market, ensuring quality assurance. In addition, what is shown with the code | symbol 30 in FIG. 3 is the mother board (mother board) etc. in the apparatus in which this optical communication module 1 is attached.

  Further, the above test is performed in a state where the light shielding plate side cutout portion 11a and the fiber side cutout portion 20a are fitted, and only those obtained with a result equal to or higher than a specified value are selected, and the selected penetration When an appropriate amount of a resin that is cured by light, such as an ultraviolet curable resin, is injected into both of the holes 11b and light is irradiated from one through hole 11b, the photocurable resin in the through holes 11b at both ends is simultaneously cured and the optical fiber 20 is irradiated. The light shielding plate 11 is fixed, and the optical module 1 in which transmission and reception are combined in one irradiation process is completed.

  Therefore, since the bonding process, which is the final process, is performed in a state where defective products are excluded in advance, it is possible to greatly reduce the occurrence of defective products. In addition, it is considered that a defective product in the above inspection is caused by a poor fitting between the light shielding plate side cutout portion 11a and the fiber side cutout portion 20a. Therefore, good products can be obtained by performing the above-described bonding process, and the total good product rate is also improved.

  Here, when the light shielding plate 11 of the optical element package 10 is described again, a portable device such as a recent mobile phone has a higher frequency to be handled, and the optical fiber 20 does not emit electromagnetic noise. Although not affected, there is a possibility that the light emitting element for transmission may affect the light receiving element for reception.

  Therefore, if the light shielding plate 11 is made of a metal member such as brass and electromagnetically shielded, it is possible to prevent the light receiving element from malfunctioning due to electromagnetic noise from the light emitting element.

  In the configuration of the first embodiment described above, among the optical fibers 20, the optical signals are transmitted and received by two of the large-diameter optical fibers 21 provided at both ends, as shown in FIG. In the second embodiment, optical signals are transmitted or received by three large-diameter optical fibers 21 connected by three small-diameter optical fibers 22 (interval holding fibers).

  In this case, as a matter of course, also in the optical element package 10, the light shielding plates 11 are provided at two positions between the three large-diameter optical fibers 21 so as to correspond to the three large-diameter optical fibers 21. The point that no interference of signals between the optical fibers 21 occurs is the same as in the previous embodiment.

  Each of the light shielding plates 11 is provided with a light shielding plate-side cutout portion 11a, and is positioned by being fitted with a fiber-side cutout portion 20a provided in a small-diameter optical fiber 22 (interval holding fiber). This is also the same as the first embodiment described above, but the number of fitting points is increased from one to two in the first embodiment, so that the element substrate portion 13 at a more accurate position is obtained. And the optical fiber 20 can be joined.

  The optical element package 10 is provided with a lens 12 corresponding to the large-diameter optical fiber 21. On the back side of the element substrate 13 corresponding to the lens 12, a receiving optical IC and a transmitting optical IC (whichever Also, an optical IC having a configuration as required may be provided. In addition, it is also possible to provide a through hole 11b corresponding to the light shielding plate side cutout portion 11a of the light shielding plate 11 to improve accuracy and simplify assembly.

  FIG. 4 shows an example in which the large-diameter optical fiber 21 is three, but the present invention is not limited to this, and as will be described later (see FIG. 4), an arbitrary number of three or more is shown. Even so, it can be similarly implemented by arranging similar configurations side by side in series. More specifically, if the large-diameter optical fiber 21 shown in FIG. 4 is composed of three layers, the same horizontal width and six large-diameter optical fibers 21 as in FIG. It can be easily formed on the extension of the technology of the invention. However, in this case, appropriate measures such as providing a light shielding plate between the large-diameter optical fibers 21 are required.

  In short, in the present invention, the provision of the light shielding plate 11 eliminates interference between optical signals and enables miniaturization, and the light shielding plate is used to provide the light shielding plate side notch portion 11a. The position of the optical fiber 21 and the lens 12 can be easily and accurately assembled only by fitting with the fiber side notch 20a provided in the optical fiber 20, and the quality is confirmed and assembled by the through hole 11b. It also simplifies the work.

  As a result, it is possible to reduce the size of the optical device with excellent productivity, low cost, high performance, and miniaturization for small portable devices that are expected to be used for further transmission of internal signals such as cellular phones in the future. The communication module 1 can be supplied, and an excellent effect of promoting the spread of this type of device is achieved.

1 is a perspective view showing a first embodiment of an optical communication module according to the present invention in a partially exploded state. It is a top view which similarly shows the 1st Example of the optical communication module which concerns on this invention. It is a side view which shows the 1st Example of the optical communication module which similarly concerns on this invention. Similarly, it is a perspective view showing the second embodiment of the optical communication module according to the present invention in a partially exploded state. It is a perspective view which shows a prior art example.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Optical communication module 10 ... Optical element package 11 ... Light-shielding plate 11a ... Light-shielding plate side notch part 11b ... Through-hole 12 ... Lens 13 ... Element board | substrate 20 ... Optical fiber 20a ... Fiber side notch part 21 ... Large diameter optical fiber 22 ... Small diameter optical fiber (spacing fiber)
30 ... Mother board

Claims (4)

An optical element package portion in which light receiving and emitting elements are attached to the element substrate is provided in the vicinity of the ends of at least two optical fibers formed by connecting and holding a gap holding fiber between each optical fiber and maintaining a predetermined gap. an optical communication module, in the element substrate of the optical element package is provided shielding plate projecting between each of said optical fiber, said light shielding plate to mate with the thickness of the gap retaining Ziv Aiba A notch portion on the side of the light-shielding plate is provided, and a through hole having substantially the same diameter as the core of the spacing fiber is provided, and the notch on the fiber side that fits the width of the shading plate in the spacing fiber on the optical fiber side is provided, wherein said through-hole in the are opposed to the core of spacing fibers and the shielding plate side notch and the through-holes are fitted to each other and said fiber-side notch spacing Optical communication module, characterized in that by making the lifting fiber optically communicated, the positioning of the optical element package and the optical fiber are performed. The fitting portion between the light shielding plate side cutout portion and the fiber side cutout portion is in optical communication with the through hole and the gap maintaining fiber, and a photocurable resin is injected into the through hole and cured by light. 2. The optical communication module according to claim 1, wherein processing is performed to fix the optical fiber and the optical element package.   The optical communication module according to claim 1, wherein the light shielding plate of the optical communication module is formed of a member having an electromagnetic shielding action. An optical element package portion in which light receiving and emitting elements are attached to the element substrate is provided in the vicinity of the ends of at least two optical fibers formed by connecting and holding a gap holding fiber between each optical fiber and maintaining a predetermined gap. An optical communication module manufacturing method comprising:
The optical element package is provided with a light shielding plate protruding from the element substrate portion, and the light shielding plate is provided with a light shielding plate-side notch that fits the thickness of the spacing fiber, and the core of the spacing fiber. A through hole having substantially the same diameter is provided,
The spacing fiber is provided with a fiber-side notch that fits the width of the light shielding plate,
The core of the spacing fiber is opposed to the through hole, and the light shielding plate side notch portion and the fiber side notch portion are fitted to each other to optically communicate the through hole and the spacing fiber. By positioning the optical fiber and the optical element package by,
A method of manufacturing an optical communication module, wherein the optical fiber and the light shielding plate are fixed by injecting a photocurable resin into the through hole and curing the resin by light irradiation.

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