JPH05249349A - Coupling device for optical parts - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the coupling device which decreases the laborious operations for enhancing coupling efficiency in coupling of optical parts and executes highly efficient coupling at suppressed coupling losses without making adjustment by fine adjustment of the parts. CONSTITUTION:A guide groove 2 for an optical fiber and guide groove 3 for a laser which are adjusted in the optical axes of the optical parts to be installed are formed on the plane of a silicon substrate 1 are constituted by communicating with each other. The optical fiber 4 and a guide 5 for the laser installed with a semiconductor laser are installed in the respective guide grooves 2, 3. As a result, the positions of the optical fiber 4 and the guide 5 for the laser are respectively fixed by the respective guide grooves 2, 3, and therefore, the high-accuracy optical axis adjustment of the core of the optical fiber 4 and the active layer 51 of the semiconductor laser is executed simply only by inserting the optical parts into the guide grooves. Since the mechanical strength is high and the mis-registration after fixing is hardly generated, the deterioration in the coupling efficiency is prevented and the high reliability is obtd.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a coupling device for optical components in the field of optical communication.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Without interposing a pair of optical components,
In the method of directly coupling, in order to suppress coupling loss, it is necessary to match the optical axes of the optical components in the pair. Therefore, in the conventional coupling method,
Adjust the component so that the coupling loss is low while moving it slightly, and fix the component with UV curable resin. Regarding the specific contents of the conventional technology, the 1989 IEICE Spring National Convention No. It is described in C-516.

[0003]

When the optical components are directly coupled without any intermediate member, for example, in coupling the semiconductor laser and the optical fiber, in order to suppress coupling loss, the semiconductor laser and the optical fiber are suppressed. It is necessary to adjust the optical axes of and to match. Therefore, let the semiconductor laser emit light,
It is indispensable to finely move the semiconductor laser and the optical fiber vertically and horizontally to adjust the coupling loss to be low, and this work requires a lot of labor and time. Also, the resin used for fixing is affected by temperature changes,
The fixed position may be displaced, which may deteriorate the coupling efficiency.

In view of the above problems, the present invention is to adjust the optical axes of optical components without adjustment, perform highly efficient coupling while suppressing coupling loss, and mount optical components having high mechanical strength. With the goal.

[0005]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a pair of guide grooves for installing optical components are communicated with each other and formed on the same substrate, and the respective optical components are arranged in the guide grooves. It is characterized by

[0006]

According to the present invention, the guide groove for a pair of optical components to be optically coupled can be formed with high precision, so that the optical component can be set at a predetermined installation position. Therefore, the optical axis of the optical component can be aligned simply by inserting the optical component into the guide groove without adjusting the component while finely moving it.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a coupling device for a semiconductor laser and an optical fiber.

On the plane of the silicon substrate 1, an optical fiber guide groove 2 and a laser guide groove 3 in which the optical axes of the optical components to be installed are aligned are formed so as to communicate with each other.
A laser guide 5 having a semiconductor laser installed therein is arranged in each of the guide grooves 2 and 3 (FIG. 1). This allows
Since the positions of the optical fiber 4 and the laser guide 5 are determined by the respective guide grooves 2 and 3, the optical fiber 4
The optical axis alignment between the core and the active layer 51 of the semiconductor laser with high accuracy can be performed only by inserting the optical component into the guide groove.

2 to 3 are schematic views of steps of manufacturing a substrate in the embodiment of the optical component coupling apparatus described above. Hereinafter, description will be given with reference to the drawings. In the actual process, a silicon wafer is used as a unit for processing, and a large number of devices are manufactured on a single wafer as if a semiconductor IC chip is manufactured, and then divided into individual chips (optical coupling device) by dicing. To do. In the following description, for convenience, the process will be described with one chip as a processing unit.

First, the silicon substrate 1 (2 mm × 30 m
m), a pattern (not shown) is formed by photolithography, and then dry etching (20 sccm, 2.0 Pa) by SF ₆ is performed to obtain a width of 0.125 m.
m, and a depth of 0.112 mm for the optical fiber guide groove 2 (FIG. 2B), followed by a width of 0.3 mm and a length of 0.3 m.
A laser guide groove 3 having a depth of m and a depth of 0.05 mm is formed (FIG. 2C). At this time, the guide groove 2, so that the optical axes of the optical fiber 4 and the laser guide 5 to be installed coincide with each other.
3 is configured.

Then, the laser guide 5 is manufactured separately as follows. An optical component substrate having a semiconductor laser is protected by a 0.3 mm wide area centered on the optical axis and has a height of 0.05 mm.
0.3m after forming a step of mm by etching method
It is cleaved to a length of m perpendicular to the optical axis, and this is used as a laser guide 5 (FIG. 3 (d)). After that, the separately prepared optical fiber 4 and the laser guide 5 are set in the guide groove 2 and the guide groove 3, respectively, and fixed by the ultraviolet curable resin and solder (FIGS. 3E and 3F).

According to this process, the guide grooves 2 and 3 can be formed on the same substrate 1 with high precision by the etching method, and the error in the deviation of the optical axis can be reduced. Further, since the optical component is positioned by the guide groove, it is unlikely to be affected by the positional shift due to the temperature change of the resin after installation.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, but various modifications can be made.

For example, the coupling of the optical components to be paired is not limited to one-to-one, but may be coupling to a plurality of plural optical components such as one-to-two. Further, the optical component is not limited to the semiconductor laser and the optical fiber, but may be, for example, one in which the optical waveguide and the optical fiber, or the semiconductor laser and the optical waveguide are coupled on the substrate.

Further, the laser guide groove 3 may be machined longer than the laser guide 5 in the optical axis direction and the distance from the optical fiber may be finely adjusted so that the optical component can be moved in the optical axis direction. ..

In the embodiment, SF ₆ (dry) is used as the etching material, but the etching material is not limited to this and may be, for example, KOH (wet). In addition, the guide groove 2,
The optical component arranged in 3 is not limited to the optical component alone, but a guide of the optical component main body may be produced as necessary as in the embodiment, and the guide and the optical component may be combined.

[0017]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to perform highly efficient coupling with suppressed coupling loss without finely adjusting the components for adjustment. Further, since the mechanical strength is high and the positional deviation after fixation is unlikely to occur, deterioration of the coupling efficiency can be prevented and high reliability can be obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a process of manufacturing a substrate according to an example of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a process of manufacturing a substrate according to an example of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Silicon substrate, 2 ... Optical fiber guide groove, 3 ... Laser guide groove, 4 ... Optical fiber, 5 ... Laser guide having semiconductor laser, 51 ... Active layer of semiconductor laser.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A coupling device for optical components, wherein a pair of optical component installation guide grooves are communicated with each other and are formed on the same substrate, and the respective optical components are arranged in the guide grooves. 2. The optical component coupling device according to claim 1, wherein the optical axes of the optical components respectively disposed in the pair of guide groove for installing the optical components substantially coincide with each other.