JPH02220010A - Parallel transmission optical module and its manufacture - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain the inexpensive parallel transmission optical module whose optical axis is easily adjusted by arranging the array of optical elements on a plane substrate and setting the incoming/outgoing direction of light vertically, and coupling the elements with optical fibers whose end surfaces are cut obliquely almost at 45 deg.. CONSTITUTION:Guide grooves 11 for positioning an optical fiber supporting part 10 are formed on the substrate 21. The guide grooves 11 are held at an accurate distance to an LED array 23 and machined by grinding in a V or right-angled shape. The optical fiber supporting part 10 has light coupling part cut by grinding, etc., at 45 deg., the light beam 13 from the LED array 23 which is transmitted through the clad part 15 of the optical fiber 26 is reflected totally by a core part 14, and its optical path is bent by 90 deg. to guide the light onto the substrate 21 in a parallel direction. The optical axes of the optical fiber 26 and LED array 23 are adjusted by sliding guides 12 provided on the optical fiber supporting part 10 along the guide grooves formed in the substrate 21 and the supporting part 10 is fixed thereafter with solder or an adhesive.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a parallel transmission optical module for optical communication and a method for manufacturing the same.

[Prior Art] Optical communication uses passive and active devices such as optical fibers, semiconductor lasers (LDs), light emitting diodes (LEDs), and photodiodes (POs), as well as optical switches, optical modulators, isolators, and optical waveguides. The range of applications is expanding due to improved performance and functionality. In recent years, with the increasing demand for transmitting more information, parallel transmission, which performs data transmission between computer terminals, exchanges, and large computers in parallel in real time, has been attracting attention. As a module that satisfies this function, there is a parallel transmission module that integrates multiple light emitting or light receiving elements and multiple optical fibers.
The light-receiving elements are LEDs, LDs, and PD arrays arranged monolithically on the same semiconductor substrate, and the fibers used are fiber arrays with multiple fibers arranged in one direction. be represented). FIG. 6 shows a general parallel transmission optical module. This parallel transmission optical module is made of Cu or Cu as shown in the figure.
On the substrate 21 made of V, Si or Al that also serves as a heat sink is placed.
A 2N1m submount 22 is installed by brazing or soldering. The surface of the submount 22 forms a separate electrode pattern 24, and each electrode has a 4-channel LED.
It is connected to the electrodes of the array 23. The 4-channel arrayed optical fiber 26 protected by a metal ferrule 25 is fixed to the substrate 21 with adhesive, solder, or welding after adjusting the optical axis so that the emitted light from the LEAD array 23 is efficiently incident. Ru. In addition, in order to achieve good optical coupling between all 4ch elements, the optical axis must be adjusted not only in the x, y and z directions for a single element optical module, but also in the rotation (
θ) direction is also required. The LED array 23 and the optical fiber 26 are coupled together through a lens, in addition to the butt coupling as shown in FIG.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

Usually, optical modules are often used by being incorporated into printed circuit boards together with electronic circuits, and are therefore required to be small in size. Therefore, the optical fiber must be placed parallel to the substrate, and in the case of LED or PD modules, the above configuration is inevitably required. Since it is necessary to place the electrode pattern on two sides and form the electrode pattern on two sides,
The productivity is poor, and there are also wire breaks at right-angled bends, resulting in poor yield and reliability. In addition, the shape is larger than a single light source or optical fiber module, which reduces packaging density and increases costs.Furthermore, optical axis adjustment is required in four directions (x, y, and θ), which requires a lot of adjustment man-hours. I need.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems and provide a parallel transmission optical module with good productivity and low cost, and a method for manufacturing the same.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, (1) in the parallel transmission optical module according to the present invention, a substrate supporting a plurality of light emitting or light receiving elements arranged in an array, and an end face on the side optically coupled to the elements are cut diagonally at approximately 45 degrees. The optical fiber support section holds an array of optical fibers having the same array pitch as the element, and has an optical fiber support section superimposed on the substrate with optical axes substantially aligned with each other.

In the parallel transmission optical module of the present invention, an optical fiber support section having an array of optical fibers to be optically coupled to the elements is stacked on a substrate supporting a plurality of light emitting or light receiving elements arranged in an array, and A manufacturing method in which the optical fiber support section is relatively displaced in one direction along a guide provided in the optical fiber support section, and the optical fiber support section is moved and fixed to a position where the optical axes of the element and the optical fiber substantially coincide with each other. obtained by.

[Effect]

In the parallel transmission optical module of the present invention, arrayed optical elements are arranged on a flat substrate, and the light input/output direction is set in the vertical direction (z).
Since the structure is such that it is coupled to an optical fiber whose end face is cut diagonally at approximately 45 degrees, the electrode pattern that conventionally requires two faces can be fabricated on one face.

The optical axes in the two directions can be adjusted by changing the size of the guide on the optical fiber support, which is prepared in advance to the desired size, and can also be adjusted by adjusting the optical fiber pitch and the position of the guide provided on the optical fiber support and the optical fiber. The relationships correspond to the array pitch of the optical elements and the positional relationship between the optical elements and the guide grooves provided on the substrate, respectively. Therefore, the optical axis can be adjusted simply by sliding the guide of the optical fiber support part along the guide groove of the board (movement in the y direction), and the clearance between the members and fixing of the members for optical axis adjustment can be adjusted. Since no space is required, the size can be reduced. As described above, a compact, low-cost, and highly productive array element module can be realized.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail with reference to the drawings.

Fig. 1 shows an example of a module showing the present invention, and Fig. 2 shows only the substrate 21 from which the optical fiber support part 10 has been removed. A 4-channel LIED array 23 is electrically connected to an electrode pattern 24 and fixed on the upper surface of the substrate 21 via an insulating film 16 such as glass paste.
(If the substrate is an insulator such as ceramic, an insulating film is not necessary.) The electrode pattern 24 is formed by using a vacuum lid of about 1,000 layers with a Cr base layer, for example, and about 2p of N on top.
After i-plating, it is patterned using photolithography technology. About 50p of solder layer is laminated by plating on the joint part with the LED. In the case of an LED array with a common n-side, four independent p-electrodes and one
This is a configuration of common n-electrodes. Further, a guide groove 11 for positioning the optical fiber support section 10 is provided on the substrate 21. The distance between the guide groove 11 and the LED array 23 is maintained accurately, and a figure 7 or right-angled groove is machined by cutting or the like.

The optical fiber support part lO, which has a thickness of about 11 mm and is made of ceramic, for example, is provided with grooves that match the pitch of the LED array 23,
The optical fiber 26 is embedded in the groove and fixed with adhesive or the like. LED array 23 and guide groove 11 on substrate 21
Further grooves are provided on the outer side of the fiber arrangement to match the spacing between the guides 12 and the guides 12, and the guides 12 are fixed with adhesive, solder, etc. so as to protrude below the optical fibers 26. For the guide 12, for example, a glass or metal rod having a diameter larger than that of the optical fiber is used. The distance between the optical fiber 26 and the LEAD array 23 can be adjusted by adjusting the size of this guide, and the distance between the LED array and the fiber is usually 50p.

Figure 3 is a diagram of this module viewed from the X direction, with the board 2
1 and the optical fiber support section 10 are shown separated from each other. Here, as shown in FIG. 4, the optical fiber support part 10 is made by cutting the light coupling part at an angle of 45 degrees by polishing or the like, and then attaching the optical fiber 2
The light beam 13 from the LED array 23 that has passed through the cladding part 15 of 6 is totally reflected by the core part 14, the optical path is bent by 90 degrees, and the light beam is guided in a direction parallel to the substrate 21.

Optical axis adjustment between the optical fiber 26 and the LED array 23 is performed by sliding the guide 12 provided on the optical fiber support 10 along the guide groove 11 provided on the substrate 21, and then fixing it with solder or adhesive. . As mentioned above.

Since the fiber array pitch, the LED array pitch, the distance between the optical fiber 26 and the guide 12, and the distance between the LED array 23 and the guide groove 11 are set accurately in advance,
Adjustment in the X direction is not necessary. Guide 1 for both directions
2 can be freely set, so here we only need to perform the X direction, and the rotation direction (θ) can also be set using the guide 12.
and optical fiber 26. Since the guide groove 11 and the LED are set parallel to each other, no adjustment is required.

Since it is simply moved along the guide, adjustments can be made easily in an extremely short time, reducing man-hours and costs. The shape, especially in the thickness direction (z), is 2 to 31 mm, which is equivalent to two substrates, making it possible to reduce the size and thickness of the film. In FIG. 5, a protrusion is provided as a guide 12 on the substrate 21 side,
This is an embodiment of the present invention in which a guide groove 11 is provided in the optical fiber support part 1O.

Exactly the same effect as the above configuration can be obtained.

In this example, the number of arrays is increased to 4, but other numbers may be used.Also, although LEDs are shown as optical elements,
The same applies to LD and PD. Further, although the shape of the guide groove and the guide is shown as a 7-shape or a cylinder, similar effects can be obtained with other shapes.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to realize a parallel transmission optical module and its manufacturing method with high productivity and low cost.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a diagram showing a substrate of an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 3 is a side view, Fig. 4 is a diagram showing an optical fiber, and Fig. 5 is a diagram showing an optical fiber. A block diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a conventional parallel transmission optical module.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A substrate supporting a plurality of light-emitting or light-receiving elements arranged in an array, and an arrayed light beam having the same array pitch as the elements by cutting the end face on the side that optically couples with the elements at an angle of approximately 45 degrees. 1. A parallel transmission optical module, comprising: an optical fiber support section that holds a fiber and overlaps the substrate with its optical axis substantially aligned with the substrate. (2) On a substrate that supports a plurality of light-emitting or light-receiving elements arranged in an array, an optical fiber support section having an array of optical fibers to be optically coupled to the elements is stacked and attached to a guide provided on the substrate. Parallel transmission characterized in that the optical fiber support section is relatively displaced in one direction along the line, and the optical fiber support section is moved and fixed to a position where the optical axes of the element and the optical fiber substantially coincide with each other. A method of manufacturing an optical module.