JPS63183404A - Structure for coupling light guide and optical fiber - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To permit quick and easy optical axis adjustment of optical fiber cores and light guides by disposing the cores respectively on front and rear blocks on a common substrate and forming the light guides on a pair of wedge blocks in the middle. CONSTITUTION:The optical fiber strands 17 are respectively imposed in parallel V-grooves 14a on the glass blocks 12, 13 on the common substrate 11 and a pair of the wedge blocks 18, 19 are stacked between the blocks. The light guides 22 are formed on the block 19. The two V-grooves on the blocks and the two guides 22 are respectively the same in the arraying angle and, therefore, there is no need for adjusting the angle around the optical axis. The adjustment of the light guides 22 in the directions horizontal and vertical with the optical axis is permitted by moving the block 18 alone or the blocks 18, 19 integrally in the horizontal direction. The quick and easy optical axis adjustment of the light guides 22 and the optical fibers 15, 16, 23 of a 1X2EO switch is thus permitted.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an optical waveguide device, and particularly to a coupling structure between an end face of a waveguide portion of an optical waveguide and an optical fiber.

[Conventional technology]

An example of a conventional coupling structure between an optical waveguide and an optical fiber is shown in the seventh section.
8 and 8, and an enlarged perspective view of the joint portion is shown in FIG. 9.
Each is shown in the figure. In FIGS. 7 to 9, an optical waveguide substrate 2 is placed inside a box-shaped metal holder 1 with an open top.
A glass block 3, which is fixed to the upper part in advance, is housed therein.

An optical waveguide 4 is formed on the optical waveguide substrate 2 .

The silicon groove substrate 6 fixed on the optical fiber terminal board 5 is provided with grooves having the same spacing as the arrangement pitch of the optical waveguides 4, and the optical fiber wires 8 of the optical fiber half are inserted into the grooves. is fixed. The optical fiber terminal board 5 and the silicon groove board 6 are attached to the metal holder 1 via support members 9 that pass through opposing side plates of the metal holder 1 and are fixed to the outer surfaces of the side plates.

The optical waveguide 4 and the optical fiber 8 are coupled by abutting the optical fiber 8 against the end face of the optical waveguide 4, and inserting the optical fiber terminal board 5 in the optical axis direction of the optical fiber 8 and perpendicular to the optical axis. After adjusting the optical axis in two directions, vertically and horizontally, the optical fiber terminal board 5 and the metal holder 1 are fixed together via the support member 9.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

In the conventional optical waveguide and optical fiber coupling structure described above, the optical axis is adjusted by abutting the optical fiber end against the end face of the optical waveguide and adjusting the position of the optical fiber 8 in three directions: vertical and horizontal. As a result, this position adjustment took time, resulting in poor productivity. Furthermore, if the optical waveguide has multiple waveguide sections arranged in an array, if the angles of the optical fiber terminal array and the optical waveguide array do not match perfectly, the optical axis cannot be completely adjusted, and the optical guide This has the disadvantage that the coupling between the wave path and the optical fiber deteriorates.

An object of the present invention is to provide a coupling structure for an optical waveguide and an optical fiber, which allows the optical axis of the optical fiber 8 to be easily adjusted with respect to the optical waveguide 4 within a short time.

[Means for solving problems]

The optical waveguide and optical fiber coupling structure of the present invention includes a silicon groove substrate for arranging and fixing the optical fiber at a desired position, an upper wedge block that holds the optical waveguide substrate on which the optical waveguide is formed, and The lower wedge block has the same wedge angle as the wedge blocks, and the upper wedge blocks are stacked with the wedges in opposite directions, and a common block that accommodates the silicon groove substrate and a pair of wedge blocks, respectively. It has a substrate.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an IX2E O (Blectro-Opt
ic) shows a top view of the switch. Common board 11
Glass blocks 12 and 13, whose upper and lower surfaces are manufactured with high parallelism, are each fixed on top of the glass blocks.

On each glass block 12.13 is a parallel silicon
Silicon groove substrates 14 having grooves (hereinafter referred to as grooves) 14a are each fixed with an adhesive. ■ Groove 14
A is for maintaining the distance between the optical fiber strands 17 of the optical fibers 15 and 16 at a desired distance.

A pair of wedge blocks 18, 19 are stacked on the common substrate 11 between the two glass blocks 12, 13, as shown in FIG. 3, each inclined in opposite directions. An optical waveguide 22 is formed on an optical waveguide substrate 21 fixed on the wedge block 18. Here, the distance between the inner ends of the opposing glass blocks 12 and 13 is made to match the length of the optical waveguide substrate 21 along the optical waveguide 22. By matching the lengths in this way,
The coupling between the optical fibers 15, 16 and the optical fibers 23 fixed on the glass block 13 and the optical waveguide substrate 21 does not require adjustment of each optical fiber 15, 16, 23 in the optical axis direction. .

Also, if the angles of the wedges of the wedge blocks 18 and 19 are adjusted accurately, the angle of the alignment of the optical fiber arrays and
The angles at which the optical waveguides 22 of the optical waveguide substrate 21 are arranged are the same, and there is no need to adjust the angle of the optical fiber 17 around the optical axis. That is, the optical waveguide 22 and the optical fiber 15.16
．． Coupling with the optical waveguide substrate 23 can be achieved by adjusting only the horizontal and vertical directions perpendicular to the optical axis of the optical waveguide substrate 21. Regarding the horizontal and vertical position adjustment of the optical waveguide substrate 21, horizontal adjustment is performed by horizontally moving the wedge block 18 with the wedge block 19 placed thereon, and vertical adjustment is performed by moving the wedge block 18 horizontally with the wedge block 19 placed thereon. This can be realized by moving along the slope of the wedge block 18.

In the 1×2 E○ switch configured as described above, the optical path of the light manually inputted from the optical fiber 23 is switched by the switch section formed on the optical waveguide substrate 21, and the light is transmitted to the optical fiber 15 and the optical fiber wire 16. It switches the output light. The coupling structure between the optical waveguide 22 and the optical fibers 15, 16, and 23 of this lX2EO switch will be described next.

The optical fibers 15, 16 are parallel and closely connected to the optical waveguide 2.
It is combined with 2. On the other hand, the optical fiber 23 serving as the input end for switching is coupled to the optical waveguide 22 on the opposite side to the optical fibers 15 and 16. The optical waveguide substrate 21 consists of two wedge blocks 18 and 19 made of a glass material made by polishing.
It is fixed with adhesive.

On the other hand, optical fibers 15, 16 .
23 are held and fixed in grooves 14a made by etching a silicon substrate 4 on which optical fiber holding portions are patterned using photolithography. These silicon groove substrates 14 are connected to glass blocks 12.1.
It is fixed on top of 3.

Both wedge blocks 18 and 19 are formed by cutting a single block whose upper and lower surfaces are parallel into a wedge shape. For this reason, wedge block 1
8. Upper wedge block 19 after overlapping 19
The upper surface and the lower surface of the lower wedge block 18 have a high degree of parallelism. Therefore, since the angles of the switch array consisting of the optical fibers 15 and 16 of the silicon groove substrate 14 and the two optical waveguides 22 are the same, there is no need to adjust the angle around the optical axis.

The actual coupling between the optical waveguide 22 and the optical fibers 15, 16 is performed by adjusting the optical waveguide substrate 21 only in the horizontal and vertical directions in a plane parallel to the optical axis. Here, when adjusting the optical waveguide substrate 21 in the horizontal direction, the wedge block 18 can be adjusted in the horizontal direction without changing the relative positional relationship between the wedge block 19 holding the optical waveguide substrate 21 and the wedge block 18. Just move it. Further, when adjusting the optical waveguide substrate 21 in the vertical direction, the wedge block 18 is moved in the horizontal direction while the wedge block 19 is fixed in the horizontal direction. In this way, the position of the optical waveguide 22 on the optical waveguide substrate 21 can be adjusted using the wedge block 18.
Only horizontal movement between the wedge block 19 and the wedge block 19 is required, and the above adjustment can be easily automated.

Figure 4 shows the coupling structure of the optical waveguide and optical fiber of the present invention.
6× with more inputs and outputs than the above lX2EO switch
This is applied to a six-light star coupler. A plurality of optical fiber arrays 31 are fixed on a pair of silicon groove substrates 14 facing each other.

On the inner wedge block 19 of the wedge blocks 18 and 19 disposed between both silicon groove substrates 14, there is an optical waveguide array 3 arranged at equal intervals with the optical fiber array 31.
3 is formed. Optical fiber array 3 as above
Even if the number of 1's is as large as six, the coupling between the optical waveguide 33 and the optical fiber 31 can be realized very easily by a method similar to the above-described coupling structure.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, two wedge blocks having the same wedge angle are stacked with the wedge directions changed, and the optical waveguide is placed on the upper wedge block, thereby guiding the optical waveguide. This has the advantage that the wave end can be coupled to the optical fiber of the optical array simply by adjusting the position of each wedge block in the horizontal direction. In addition, since the optical waveguide and the optical fiber array always coincide in the horizontal direction, it is easy to adjust the rotation of the optical waveguide and the optical fiber in the optical axis direction, improving the productivity of optical waveguide devices.
This has the effect of achieving such a low price.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a coupling structure between an optical waveguide and an optical fiber showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a vertical cross-sectional view taken along line A-A in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a B-- B-line longitudinal cross-sectional view,
FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a coupling portion between an optical waveguide and an optical fiber, FIG. 5 is a plan view of the coupling structure of the present invention applied to a 6×6 optical star coupler, and FIG. 6 is a line C-C in FIG. 5. 7 is a plan view showing an example of a conventional coupling structure between an optical waveguide and an optical fiber, FIG. 8 is a vertical sectional view taken along the line D-D in FIG. 7, and FIG. FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a coupling portion with a fiber. 11...Common board, 12.13...Glass block, 14...
...Silicon groove substrate, 14a...Silicon groove, 15.16...Optical fiber, 17...Optical fiber wire, 18.19...(rust) Block, 21...
... Optical waveguide substrate, 22 ... Optical waveguide, 23 ... Optical fiber. Applicant: NEC Corporation Representative

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a coupling structure between an optical waveguide and an optical fiber, a silicon V-groove substrate for arranging and fixing the optical fiber at a desired position, a wedge block for holding the optical waveguide substrate on which an optical waveguide is formed, and a wedge equal to the wedge block. A light guide characterized in that it has a wedge block having a corner and in which the wedge blocks are stacked with the wedges in opposite directions, and a common substrate that accommodates the silicon V-groove substrate and the pair of wedge blocks, respectively. Coupling structure of wave path and optical fiber.