JPS63217308A - Manufacture of optical waveguide applied component - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the loss of waveguide light and to easily obtain a high- reliability component by forming a groove in the side surface of a substrate so that a specific place of a filter film is left, and forming an optical waveguide in the groove. CONSTITUTION:A filter film 22 is laminated over the entire surface 19a of a dielectric 19, a layer of a dielectric 20 is laminated over the entire surface of the film 22, and then a filter film 23, a dielectric 21, and a filter 24 are laminated by turns. The surface of the substrate 11 formed of a lamination block like this is polished and the groove 26 is formed by mask etching in the flank if the substrate 11 where the films 22-24 are exposed. At this time, the groove 25 extends penetrating the films 23 and 22 at places indicated by 23a, 22a, and 22b and is parted by the films 23 and 22 at places indicated by 23b and 22c. Then the optical waveguide 26 is formed of a dielectric having a higher refractive index than the dielectrics 19-21 of the substrate 11 in the groove.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Summary] In order to enable mass production and miniaturization of optical waveguide application parts with low loss of guided light and high reliability in a method of manufacturing optical waveguide application parts. , a groove for forming a leading wavepath is formed by mask etching so as to leave a necessary part of the filter film on the side surface of a substrate having a laminated structure of a dielectric and a filter film, and then a groove is formed in the groove that refracts more than the dielectric of the substrate. An optical waveguide made of a dielectric material with a high index is formed by vapor deposition or the like.

[Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing an optical waveguide application component.

Optical components such as splitters and couplers that utilize guided waveguides generally include a dielectric substrate, a guided waveguide with a higher refractive index than the dielectric substrate, and a filter film interposed in the path of the optical waveguide. We are prepared. In recent years, there has been a demand for small and inexpensive optical waveguide application components, and there has also been a demand for optical waveguide application components with low loss of guided light and high reliability.

[Prior art and its problems]

An example of the structure of a conventional optical waveguide application component is shown in FIG. 8. Referring to this figure, there are optical waveguides 2.
A glass substrate 5 is provided with a filter film 4 on its surface.
is inserted into the gap formed between the optical waveguides 2 and 3 near the branching portion and fixed onto the dielectric substrate 1. optical fiber 6
．． 7.8 is a corresponding leading waveguide 2.3 held by a fiber fixing block 9゜10 provided on the dielectric substrate 1.
connected to the end of the In this type of optical waveguide application component, guided light is split or combined by a filter film 4 and guided to an optical fiber on the output side.

Conventionally, as described above, after forming the optical waveguides 2 and 3 on the dielectric substrate 1 in advance, the glass substrate 5 having the filter JI 19 is inserted into the gap previously provided between the optical waveguides 2 and 3, and the glass substrate 5 is connected to the dielectric substrate 1. Since the filter film 4 and the end face of one of the leading waveguides 3 were separated from each other by the thickness of the glass substrate 5 with the filter film, the glass substrate 5, there was a drawback that light loss occurred. Furthermore, there is a risk of damaging the filter membrane 4 when inserting the glass substrate 5.

Furthermore, since it is necessary to secure a clearance between the glass substrate 5 and the guide waveguides 2.3 for mechanical assembly of the glass substrate 5, the filter film for the optical waveguides 2, 3 must be secured due to the clearance. There was a risk that the angular shift of the attached glass substrate 5 would occur, resulting in optical loss. For this reason, when assembling the glass substrate 5 provided with the filter film 5, it is sometimes necessary to adjust its angle, which has hindered mass production of optical waveguide application parts. Furthermore, due to deterioration of the adhesive that bonds the glass substrate 5 and the dielectric substrate 1, the optical waveguide 2.
There is a possibility that the angle of the glass substrate 5 with respect to the glass substrate 3 may be shifted, resulting in loss of guided light.

Furthermore, mechanical assembly of the glass substrate Fi5 provided with the filter film 4 requires work and angle adjustment work, which makes it difficult to mass produce and miniaturize optical waveguide application parts, and also increases manufacturing man-hours. The drawback was that it increased costs.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a manufacturing method that can easily obtain highly reliable optical waveguide application components with little loss of guided light and that is suitable for mass production and miniaturization of optical waveguide application components. The purpose is to provide.

[Means for solving problems]

According to the present invention, a substrate having a laminated structure of the filter film and the dielectric is formed by alternately layering the filter film and the dielectric on the end face of the dielectric, and the filter film is formed on the side surface of the substrate where the filter film is exposed. , forming a groove for forming a leading waveguide by mask etching so as to leave a predetermined portion of the filter film;
There is then provided a method for manufacturing an optical waveguide application component, which comprises forming a guide waveguide made of a dielectric material with a higher refractive index than the dielectric material of the substrate in the groove by vapor deposition or the like.

[For production]

In the method for manufacturing optical waveguide application components according to the present invention,
A groove for forming a leading waveguide is formed on the side surface of the substrate by mask etching so as to leave a predetermined portion of the filter film previously formed on the substrate.Then, the guiding wavepath is formed in the groove by vapor deposition, etc. The gap between the leading waveguides separated by is substantially equal to the thickness of the filter film. Therefore, the loss of the guided light becomes very small.

Furthermore, since the guide waveguide is formed within the groove by chemical vapor deposition, physical vapor deposition, etc., there is no clearance between the optical waveguide and the groove or between the optical waveguide and the filter film. There is no possibility that positional deviation or angular deviation will occur. Further, since the groove pattern can be formed with high precision by mask etching, the angular precision of the optical waveguide with respect to the filter film can be improved. Moreover, since the coupling structure between the optical waveguide and the filter film can be obtained without using an adhesive, a highly accurate and reliable optical waveguide application component can be obtained.

Furthermore, mechanical assembly does not require any work or angle adjustment work, and it is possible to obtain a coupling structure between the filter film and the optical waveguide, making mass production possible and miniaturization of optical waveguide application parts. becomes possible.

〔Example〕

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

1 to 4 show the structure of an optical waveguide application component obtained by an embodiment of the manufacturing method according to the present invention. Referring to these figures, the optical waveguide application component has a substrate 11, and optical fibers 1 are connected to both ends of the substrate 11.
Fiber holding block 12 for holding 4-18.
13 is attached. Note that the substrate 11 and the fiber holding blocks 12, 13 may have an integral structure.

Here, the substrate 11 has a laminated structure of three dielectrics 19, 20, 21 made of quartz glass, for example, and three filter films 22, 23, 24 made of, for example, TtO/5iO1. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a groove 25 for forming a waveguide is formed on the side surface of the substrate 11 where the filter films 22, 23, and 24 are exposed, and a groove 25 for forming a waveguide is formed inside the groove 25. A leading waveguide 26 is formed of a dielectric material having a refractive index higher than that of the body 19°20.21. The optical waveguide 26 is doped with a high refractive index dopant such as Ti or Ge.
For example, it is formed by sputtering SiO2 containing Ti. Although not shown in FIG. 1, as shown in FIGS. 2 to 4, a cladding layer 27 with a refractive index lower than that of the optical waveguide 26 (for example, from 5to2 ) is formed over the entire surface.

As shown in FIG. 1, the optical waveguide 26 branches from the inside of the filter film 24 midway and extends to the end of the substrate 11 bonded to the block 13, with reference numerals 23a, 22a, 22
At point b, it extends through the filter membrane 23.22, reference numeral 23b.

It is separated by a filter membrane 23.22 at a point 22C.

Seven-shaped grooves 12a, 13a are formed in the block 12.13, and the optical fibers 14-18 are fixed in the grooves 12a, 13 of the block 12.13, for example with adhesive. At this time, as can be seen from FIG. 4, the optical fibers 14 to 18
The cores 14a to 18a are joined to corresponding ends of the optical waveguide 26.

In this optical waveguide application component, light incident from the optical fiber 14 is filtered through the filter film 24. 23. 22 and are sequentially branched into optical fibers 15-18.

FIGS. 5 to 7 show an embodiment of the method for manufacturing the above-mentioned optical waveguide application component. Referring to these figures, first, the substrate 11 is manufactured according to the procedure shown in FIGS. 5(a) to 5(d). That is, the filter film 22 is deposited over the entire area of the end surface 19a of the dielectric 19 to a thickness of, for example, 2 to 3 μm by vacuum deposition or the like.
5(a), (b)), then a layer of the dielectric material 20 is formed over the entire surface of the filter film 22 by vacuum evaporation or the like as shown in FIG. 5(C1). Thereafter, filter films 23, dielectrics 21, and filter films 24 are alternately laminated (FIG. 5(d)). Note that the laminated block made in this way can be used as it is as the substrate 11, but this laminated block is shown in FIG.
d) A plurality of substrates 11 can be obtained by cutting at locations indicated by dotted lines.

The surface of the formed substrate 11 is polished as necessary, and a sixth
As shown, grooves 26 are formed by mask etching. At this time, the filter membranes 23.22 are etched at locations 23a, 22a, and 22b, and 24.
a, 23b.

Filter membranes 24, 23, and 22 remain at location 22C. Thus, at locations 23a, 22a, 22b the grooves 25 extend through the filter membrane 23.22, and at locations 23b, 22c the grooves 25 extend through the filter membrane 23.22.
Divided by 2.

Next, as shown in FIG.
An optical waveguide 26 made of a dielectric material with a refractive index higher than 1 is formed in the groove 25 by chemical or physical vapor deposition. Note that the dielectric layer formed on the side surface of the substrate 11 by chemical vapor deposition or physical vapor deposition is removed by polishing. Furthermore, after that, a cladding layer 27 is formed on the substrate 11 and the optical waveguide 26.

In the optical waveguide application component manufactured by the above manufacturing method, the groove 25 for forming the optical waveguide is formed on the side surface of the substrate 11 by mask etching so as to leave the necessary portions of the filter films 22 to 24 previously formed on the substrate 11. Therefore, the gap between the leading waveguides 26 separated by the filter films 22, 23 is substantially equal to the thickness of the filter films 22, 23.

Therefore, the loss of the guided light becomes very small.

Furthermore, since the leading waveguide 26 is formed within the groove 25 by chemical vapor deposition or physical vapor deposition, a clearance may occur between the optical waveguide 26 and the groove 25 or between the leading waveguide 26 and the filter films 22 to 24. Therefore, there is no possibility that positional or angular deviations due to clearance will occur.Furthermore, since the pattern of the grooves 25 can be formed with high precision using a mask etching jig, the filter film 22
The angular precision of the leading waveguide 26 relative to 24 can be improved. Furthermore, the leading waveguide 26 can be constructed without using adhesive.
Since it is possible to obtain a bonding structure between the filter films 22 to 24 and the filter films 22 to 24, it is possible to obtain a highly accurate and highly reliable optical waveguide application component.

Furthermore, mechanical assembly does not require any work or angle adjustment work, and the coupling structure between the filter films 22 to 24 and the optical waveguide 26 can be obtained, making mass production possible. It becomes possible to downsize parts.

Although the illustrated embodiments have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the aspects of the above embodiments. For example, the number of filter films in the substrate, the pattern shape of the optical waveguide, etc. can be changed accordingly.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, a groove for forming an optical waveguide is formed by mask etching so as to leave a necessary area for a filter film on the side surface of a substrate having a laminated structure of a dielectric material and a filter film. After that, a guiding waveguide made of a dielectric material with a higher refractive index than that of the substrate dielectric material is formed in the groove by vapor deposition, so the mechanical assembly is low-cost and does not require any work or angle adjustment work. It is possible to obtain optical waveguide application parts with high reliability due to optical loss, and it becomes possible to mass produce and miniaturize optical waveguide application parts.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a state in which a fiber holding block is assembled to an optical waveguide application component obtained by the method of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a plan view of the optical waveguide application component shown in FIG.
■A cross-sectional view taken along the line, Figure 3 is the first diagram of the optical waveguide application parts shown in Figure 1.
4 is a sectional view taken along the line IV-IV in FIG. FIG. 6 is a plan view showing the step of forming a groove in an embodiment of the method for manufacturing an optical waveguide application component according to the present invention; FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing the manufacturing process of a substrate according to the present invention; FIG. FIG. 8 is a plan view showing the process of forming an optical waveguide in an embodiment of the manufacturing method of FIG. is a substrate, 19-21 are dielectrics, 22-
24 represents a filter film, 25 represents a groove, and 26 represents an optical waveguide.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Filter film (22 to 24) on the end face of the dielectric (19)
By alternately laminating the filter film and the dielectric (20, 21), a substrate (
11), and mask-etch a groove (25) for forming an optical waveguide so as to leave a predetermined portion of the filter film (22-24) on the side surface of the substrate (11) where the filter film (22-24) is exposed. After that, the dielectric material (19 to 19) of the substrate (11) is formed in the groove (25).
The optical waveguide (21) is made of a dielectric material with a higher refractive index than the optical waveguide (21).
6) A method for manufacturing an optical waveguide application component, characterized by forming.