JPH0232306A - Optical device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To constitute the title optical device so that an optical element is not exposed to the air and high reliability is obtained by sealing airtightly the optical element in a package having an optical receptacle in which a lens is enclosed airtightly and coupling optically the optical element and an optical fiber through the lens. CONSTITUTION:An optical waveguide element 10 is sealed airtightly so as to be coupled optically with a lens array 11 in a package 13 to which an optical receptacle 12 in which the lens array 11 is enclosed with high airtightness by low melting point glass, etc. is attached. Also, the lens array 11 is constituted so that it is fitted into an opening part 13a provided on the end part side of the right side of the package 13 and seals airtightly this opening part 13a, when the optical receptacle 12 is fixed to the right side end face of the package 13. In such a way, the optical element is not exposed to the air, and higher reliability can be obtained. Also, an optical fiber is constituted so as to be attachable and detachable to and from the optical receptacle in which the lens is enclosed airtightly, therefore, the mounting space can be reduced remarkably.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to optical devices having functions such as optical branching/coupling, optical demultiplexing/multiplexing, optical modulation, optical switching, light emission, light reception, and optical amplification. The present invention relates to an optical device equipped with an optical fiber.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, for this type of optical device, a guiding waveguide is formed on a dielectric substrate such as LiNb0 or a semiconductor substrate such as GaAs, and while the light is confined in the optical waveguide, the shape of the optical waveguide itself and the distance between the optical waveguides are changed. InGaAsP, S
It is known that a photoelectric conversion element is formed on a semiconductor substrate such as i, and functions such as light emission, light reception, and light amplification are obtained.

In these optical devices, it is possible to integrate a large number of functional devices on the same substrate.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, when using optical fibers for optical input and output of the above-mentioned optical elements, conventionally, as shown in FIG.
A pigtail input/output method is generally used, in which the end face of the optical fiber array 1 and the end face of the guiding waveguide element 2, which is an optical element, are butted against each other, and an adhesive 3 that also serves as refractive index matching is filled and fixed between the end faces. . Note that, in addition to the guiding waveguide element 2, a semiconductor laser 5 and a photodiode 6 are mounted in the case 4 in a hermetically sealed state. However, this method has the following problems.

The first point is that it is difficult to make the optical waveguide element 2, which is an optical element, airtight. That is, if the guiding waveguide element 2 is exposed to high humidity conditions or reactive gases contained in the atmosphere, there is a risk that the electrodes formed on the guiding waveguide element 2 or the guiding waveguide element 2 itself may deteriorate, and the reliability of the guiding waveguide element 2 may deteriorate. In order to achieve this goal, it is necessary to make it airtight. However, in the conventional method, since the outer sheath of the optical fiber array 1 is made of a heat-sensitive polymer material, it is difficult to make the optical fiber array 1 airtight.

The second point is that in the pigtail input/output method, the space required to fix the terminals of the optical fiber array 1 and the space required when mounting the optical fiber array 1 in the panel occupies a large proportion, and The advantages of small size and high integration of the optical waveguide element 2 formed in the optical waveguide device 2 may not be utilized.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention was made in view of the above-mentioned drawbacks, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an optical device that can reliably prevent optical elements from being exposed to the atmosphere and that can significantly reduce the mounting space.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, an optical device according to the present invention includes an optical element hermetically sealed within a package, at least one lens hermetically sealing an opening of the package, and an optical element hermetically sealed within a package. It comprises a fixed optical receptacle and at least one optical fiber detachably attached to the optical receptacle, and has a configuration in which the optical element and the optical fiber are optically coupled via a lens.

[Effect]

As described above, in the present invention, the optical element is hermetically sealed in a package having an optical receptacle in which the lens is hermetically sealed, and the optical element and the optical fiber are optically coupled through the lens. The optical element is not exposed to the atmosphere. This provides higher reliability. Further, since the optical fiber can be attached to and detached from the optical receptacle in which the lens is hermetically sealed, the mounting space is significantly reduced.

〔Example〕

Next, details of the present invention will be explained with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of an optical device according to the present invention. The optical waveguide element 1O is an optical receptacle 1 in which a lens array 11 is hermetically sealed with low melting point glass or the like.
The lens array 11 is placed inside the package 13 to which the lens array 2 is attached.
It is hermetically sealed in such a way that it is optically coupled to. Further, when the optical receptacle 12 is fixed to the right end surface of the package 13, the lens array 11 fits into an opening 13a provided on the right end side of the package 13, and hermetically seals this opening 13a. It is configured. The flange portion 12a of the optical receptacle I2 is fixed to the right end surface of the package 13, and an engagement groove 12c is formed in the outer peripheral surface of the cylindrical portion 12b.

The optical fiber array 14 has an optical fiber array connector 15 fixed to its tip side, and when the engagement piece 15a of the optical fiber array connector 15 engages with the engagement groove 12c of the optical receptacle 12, the lens array 11
It is configured to be optically coupled to the leading waveguide element 10 via.

Here, the optical receptacle 12 is an optical fiber array 14
After being positioned so that the coupling loss between the waveguide element 10 and the leading waveguide element 10 is minimized, it is fixedly attached to the package 13. In addition, the engagement piece 1 of the optical fiber array connector I5
5a can be elastically deformed in a direction perpendicular to the insertion direction.

Further, the lens array 11 uses a plurality of convergent rod lenses or ball lenses arranged in parallel, or a flat plate microlens in which a plurality of convergent rod lenses are formed on a sheet of flat glass by an ion exchange method. It is made up of. Note that this lens array 11
The configuration does not require the use of a plurality of lenses; for example, if there is one optical fiber engaged with the optical receptacle 12, only one lens is required.

This embodiment shows an example of a transmitting module for optical parallel transmission, in which a semiconductor laser 16 and a photodiode 17 for monitoring its optical output are also hermetically sealed and mounted in addition to the guiding waveguide element 10 in the package 13. . Further, the electric terminal 16a1 of these semiconductor lasers 16, the photodiode 17
The electrical terminal 17a and the electrical terminal 10a for controlling the optical waveguide element 10 each employ an electrical terminal for airtight sealing. In this example, the leading waveguide element IO is a titanium (Ti) diffused=obstructed lithium (L i N bo) waveguide element with a waveguide width of 8 μm.

Next, the operation of the optical device according to this embodiment will be explained. First, the output light of the semiconductor laser 16 is coupled to the guide waveguide element 10 and branched into a plurality of lights, each of which is modulated by the electro-optic effect and outputted from the optical fiber array 14 via the lens array 11. It has become. Here, anti-reflection coatings are applied to the leading waveguide element 10, the right side of the lens array 11, and the input/output ends of the optical fiber array 14 in order to reduce coupling loss due to Fresnel reflection. This device was operated continuously for more than 5,000 hours in a high temperature, high humidity environment at 60°C and 195%, but no characteristic deterioration was observed.

In addition, in the above-mentioned embodiment, an example was shown in which a transmitting module for parallel optical transmission, which is a guiding waveguide element, was used as an optical element, but the optical element is not limited to this, and a semiconductor laser array or a photodiode may be used as an optical element. A configuration using light emitting elements and light receiving elements such as an array may also be used.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, in the optical device according to the present invention, an optical element is hermetically sealed in a package having an optical receptacle in which a lens is hermetically sealed, and the optical element and an optical fiber are optically coupled through the lens. With this configuration, the optical element is not exposed to the atmosphere, and higher reliability can be achieved. Further, the optical fiber is positioned in advance to minimize coupling loss, and then fixed to the package, and is configured to be detachable from an optical receptacle in which a lens is hermetically sealed. Therefore, the optical device of the present invention also has the effect that the mounting space can be significantly reduced compared to the conventional pigtail type device.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of an optical device according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing an example of a conventional pigtail type optical device. 10... Optical waveguide element, 11... Lens array 12... Optical receptacle, 13...
...Package, 13a...Opening, 14.
...Optical fiber array 15...Optical fiber array connector '79.15a...Engaging piece. Applicant: NEC Corporation Agent
Patent Attorney Umeo Yamauchi 0a Figure 1 Figure 2

Claims (1)

[Claims] an optical element hermetically sealed within a package; an optical receptacle fixed to the package; the optical receptacle having at least one lens hermetically sealing an opening of the package;
An optical device comprising at least one optical fiber detachably attached to the optical receptacle, the optical element and the optical fiber being optically coupled via a lens.