Microconnectors for the passive alignment of optical waveguides and ribbon optical fibers

This paper describes the fabrication of a new mechanical microconnector, which is used for the precise optical self-alignment of multi-waveguide Optical Integrated Circuits (OIC) to ribbon optical fibers, without injecting light in the fiber. Nickel alignment pins are electrodeposited on the OIC using a photolithographic process, and the pins are inserted into suitable openings made on a silicon micromachined platform, on which optical fibers are accurately positioned using V-grooves. Design and fabrication issues are reported, as well as preliminary experimental results which show that excess optical losses on the order of 3 dB can be obtained.