JPH07140348A - Production of optical waveguide module - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve moisture resistance by subjecting both end faces of an optical waveguide element or one point of the adhesive surfaces of an optical fiber to a silane coupling treatment, then adhering and fixing the element and the fiber. CONSTITUTION:A dummy plate 2 is adhered and fixed atop the optical waveguide element 1. On the other hand, a glass fiber-cord 3 is arranged into the V-groove of a single-fiber V-groove plate 4 and is adhered and fixed to a retaining plate 5 by a UV adhesive. A 4-core fiber ribbon 6 is also arranged into the respective V-grooves of a 4-core V-groove plate 7 and the retaining plate 8 is loaded to house the fibers into the respective V-grooves. The fibers are then adhered and fixed by the UV adhesive. Both end faces on the inlet and exit sides of a waveguide block 9 adhered with the dummy plate 2 and the retaining plates 5, 8 and end faces on the waveguide side of the fiber blocks 10, 11 are optically polished. The polished surfaces of the respective block 9 to 11 are again subjected to the silane coupling treatment. Light is made incident from the glass fiber-cord 3 and optical axis adjustment is executed while the power of the exit light from the 4-core fiber ribbon 6 is monitored. The end faces of the respective blocks 9 to 11 are thereafter adhered and fixed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing an optical waveguide module in which an input / output fiber is adhered and fixed so that the optical axis is aligned with the end face of the optical waveguide element.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A method of manufacturing an optical waveguide module will be described by taking a 1 × 4 splitter module as an example.

FIG. 3 is an external perspective view of a 1 × 4 splitter module.

On the upper surface of the optical waveguide device 1 in which the optical waveguide is formed on the quartz substrate, a quartz dummy plate 2 of the same size is made of UV.
It is adhered and fixed by a curable adhesive (hereinafter referred to as UV adhesive).

The dummy plate 2 is for preventing the optical waveguide (core) from being chipped or sagging (curved surface) when polishing both end faces of the optical waveguide.

On the other hand, the single fiber 3 for incidence is arranged on a quartz V-groove plate 4 in which V-grooves are formed, and is bonded and fixed to the holding plate 5 with a UV adhesive. Similarly, the outgoing four-core tape fiber 6 is also made of quartz four-core V-groove plate 7 in which four V-grooves are formed.
, Each fiber is accommodated in the V groove by being loaded by the holding plate 8 and fixed by adhesion with a UV adhesive.

The waveguide block 9 and the fiber blocks 10 and 11 to which the dummy plate 2 and the pressing plates 5 and 8 are adhered
The end face is optically polished and finished until there are no scratches that cause connection loss.

Each of the blocks 9 to 11 which have been polished is irradiated with light from the incident single-core optical fiber 3 and emitted from the output 4-core tape fiber 6 on the precision fine movement table while monitoring the power. Adjust the axis. And after adjusting the optical axis,
Modularization is completed when the block end faces are adhered and fixed with a UV adhesive (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 59-28416).

[0009]

By the way, in general, polymer-based adhesives show extremely large decrease in adhesive strength under high temperature and high humidity. The module described above is no exception, and since all of the epoxy-based or acrylate-based UV-curable adhesives are used for assembly, there is a concern that the respective adhesive surfaces may be peeled off. In particular, separation of the optical axis portion between the block end faces leads to a reduction in reflection attenuation (increase in return light due to reflection) and an increase in insertion loss, which causes a module failure.

FIG. 2 is a graph showing the change over time in the return loss of the incident port when the 1 × 4 splitter module is exposed to high temperature and high humidity at a temperature of 75 ° C. and a humidity of 95% (RH). The horizontal axis represents time (hr), and the vertical axis represents return loss (d
B) is shown.

As shown in the figure, the characteristic curve (broken line La)
Shows that the return loss decreases sharply after about 500 hours,
It became about 13 dB in 50 hours, and there was an air layer on the end surface of the block. Further, along with this peeling, the insertion loss was increased by about 1.5 dB due to the optical axis shift and Fresnel reflection.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve the above problems and provide a method of manufacturing an optical waveguide module having excellent moisture resistance.

[0013]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a method of manufacturing an optical waveguide module in which an input / output fiber is adhesively fixed to both end faces of an optical waveguide element so that the optical axes coincide with each other. In the above, the silane coupling treatment is applied to both end surfaces of the optical waveguide device or the adhesive surface of the optical fiber, and then the adhesive is fixed.

Further, according to the present invention, an optical waveguide element, a dummy plate for covering the optical waveguide element to protect the element, each tip of the input / output fiber, and the input / output fiber are aligned. Silane coupling treatment is applied to the V-groove plate for holding and the holding plate for holding the incoming and outgoing fibers aligned with the V-groove plate, and the dummy plate is adhered to the optical waveguide element and the V-groove plate is attached. After arranging the input / output fibers on the upper side, a holding plate is adhered on the V-groove plate, both end faces of the optical waveguide element and the dummy plate on the input / output side are polished, and the optical waveguide of the V-groove and holding plate The end face on the side is polished, silane coupling treatment is applied to each polished face, the optical axis is adjusted, and then the input and output fibers are adhesively fixed to both end faces of the optical waveguide device so that the optical axes match. is there.

[0015]

According to the above construction, since the silane coupling treatment is applied to at least one of the both end surfaces of the optical waveguide element or the bonding surface of the optical fiber, the bonding between the adhesive having low adhesiveness and the optical waveguide is performed. Becomes stronger. That is, at the interface between the organic resin of the adhesive and the inorganic compound of the optical waveguide and the optical fiber, an addition reaction occurs on the organic resin side of the silane coupling agent, and a dehydration condensation reaction occurs on the inorganic compound side of the silane coupling agent. A strong chemical bond is formed.

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a method for manufacturing an optical waveguide module of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. The 1 × 4 splitter module described in the conventional example will be described as an example of the optical waveguide module.

First, an optical waveguide element 1, a dummy plate 2 for covering the optical waveguide element 1 to protect the element, a tip portion of a single-core fiber 3 as an incident fiber, and four cores as an emission fiber. A front end portion of the tape fiber 6, a single-core V-groove plate 4 in which a V groove for aligning the single-core fiber 3 is formed, and a V-groove 4 for aligning the 4-fiber tape fiber 6 are formed. A holding plate 5 for holding the core V-groove plate 7 and the single-core fibers 3 aligned with the single-core V-groove plate 4.
And the holding plate 8 for holding the four-core tape fiber 6 aligned with the four-core V-groove plate 7 are all immersed in the epoxy-based silane coupling agent solution, and each of the quartz parts 1 through 1 is dehydrated and condensed. A silane coupling layer is formed on the surface of No. 8. The organic reactive group of the silane coupling agent is epoxy type or amino type.

On the upper surface of the optical waveguide element 1, a dummy plate (of course having the same dimensions as the optical waveguide element)
2 is bonded and fixed with an epoxy UV adhesive.

On the other hand, the single-core fiber 3 is arranged in the V-groove of the single-core V-groove plate 4 and is bonded and fixed to the holding plate 5 with a UV adhesive.
Similarly, the four-core tape fiber 6 is also arranged in each V-groove of the four-core V-groove plate 7, the pressing plate 8 is loaded and housed in each V-groove, and fixed by adhesion with a UV adhesive.

Both end faces of the waveguide block 9 to which the dummy plate 2 and the holding plates 5 and 8 are adhered, on the input and output sides, and the end faces of the fiber blocks 10 and 11 on the waveguide side are optically polished to be scratched. Finish until it is gone.

In each of the blocks 9 to 11 after polishing, the polishing surface is subjected to the silane coupling treatment again by the above-mentioned procedure. Then, light is incident from the single-core fiber 3 on the precision fine movement table, and the optical axis is adjusted while monitoring the power of the light emitted from the 4-core tape fiber 6.

After adjusting the optical axis, the end faces of the blocks 9 to 11 are bonded and fixed with an epoxy UV adhesive to form a 1 × 4 splitter module.

Next, the operation of the embodiment will be described.

FIG. 1 is a schematic view for explaining the mechanism of a silane coupling agent used in manufacturing a 1 × 4 splitter module.

In the figure, reference numeral 12 represents a silane coupling agent, organic resin 13 corresponds to a UV adhesive, inorganic compound 14 is a quartz optical component, that is, optical waveguide device 1,
It corresponds to the optical components 1 to 8 such as the fibers 3 and 6.

The optical waveguide element 1, the dummy plate 2, the tip of the single-core fiber 3, the tip of the 4-core tape fiber 6, and the single-core V
When the groove plate 4, the 4-core V groove plate 7 and the holding plates 5 and 8 are immersed in the silane coupling agent 12, the surfaces of the inorganic compounds constituting the optical components 1 to 8 are changed to the silane coupling agent 12.
Is coated with.

When the UV adhesive is applied to the optical components 1 to 8 coated with the silane coupling agent 12, UV is applied.
At the interface between the adhesive and the optical components 1 to 8, an addition reaction occurs on the side of the UV adhesive and a dehydration condensation reaction occurs on the side of the optical components 1 to 8. Therefore, as shown by the characteristic curve (solid line Lb) in FIG. A strong chemical bond is formed. As shown in the figure, the reduction of the return loss starts after more than 2000 hours, which means that the moisture resistance is improved four times or more as compared with the conventional case where the silane coupling treatment is not performed. .

As described above, in this embodiment, since the silane coupling treatment is applied to the optical parts such as both end faces of the optical waveguide device and the adhering face (tip) of the optical fiber, they are adhered and fixed.
A strong chemical bond is formed at the interface, and an optical waveguide module having excellent moisture resistance is formed.

In the present embodiment, the surface of all the optical components was coated with the silane coupling agent, but the present invention is not limited to this. At least one place on both end faces of the optical waveguide device or the bonding face of the optical fiber. It may be coated with a silane coupling agent. Further, 1 to 3% of a silane coupling agent may be mixed with the UV adhesive. Furthermore, in the present embodiment, the case where the optical waveguide module is a 1 × 4 splitter module has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this, and it is applicable if a silica-based optical component is bonded and fixed with a UV adhesive. Good.

[0030]

In summary, according to the present invention, the following excellent effects are exhibited.

Since the silane coupling treatment is applied to at least one position of both end faces of the optical waveguide element or the adhesive face of the optical fiber and then the components are adhered and fixed, a strong chemical bond is formed at the interface and an optical waveguide excellent in moisture resistance is formed. The module is formed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram for explaining the mechanism of a silane coupling agent used when manufacturing a 1 × 4 splitter module as an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a graph showing the change over time in the return loss of the incident port when the 1 × 4 splitter module was exposed to high temperature and high humidity at a temperature of 75 ° C. and a humidity of 95%.

FIG. 3 is an external perspective view of a 1 × 4 splitter module.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Optical waveguide element 3 Incident fiber (single core fiber) 6 Emitting fiber (4 core tape fiber)

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A method of manufacturing an optical waveguide module in which an input / output fiber is adhered and fixed to both end surfaces of the optical waveguide element so that optical axes thereof coincide with each other, and both end surfaces of the optical waveguide element or an adhered surface of the optical fiber. A method of manufacturing an optical waveguide module, comprising performing silane coupling treatment on at least one position and then fixing by adhesion. 2. An optical waveguide element, a dummy plate for covering the optical waveguide element to protect the element, each tip of the input / output fiber, and for aligning the input / output fiber in alignment. The V-groove plate and the holding plate for holding the input / output fibers aligned with the V-groove plate are subjected to silane coupling treatment, respectively, to bond the dummy plate on the optical waveguide device and After the input / output fibers are aligned on the V-groove plate, the pressing plate is adhered on the V-groove plate, and both end faces of the optical waveguide element and the dummy plate on the input / output side are polished. The V-groove and the end surface of the holding plate on the optical waveguide side are polished, and each polishing surface is subjected to silane coupling treatment to adjust the optical axis so that the optical axes coincide with both end surfaces of the optical waveguide element. Adhesive fixing of the input / output fibers A method for manufacturing an optical waveguide module, comprising: 3. The method for producing an optical waveguide module according to claim 1, wherein the organic reactive group of the silane coupling agent used in the silane coupling treatment is epoxy type or amino type. 4. The method of manufacturing an optical waveguide module according to claim 1, wherein a 1% to 3% silane coupling agent is mixed with the adhesive used for the adhesive fixing.