A design for assembly evaluation methodology for photonic systems

Photonic systems typically consist of components and subassemblies whose functions may be categorized as optical, electronic, or mechanical. In the present study, it is demonstrated that unlike mechanical assemblies, building optical assemblies typically involves only a few parts, but a large number of alignment/adjustment operations. So, the techniques of design for assembly (DFA) that are based on identifying and eliminating parts that are deemed unnecessary do not provide insight into design of these systems for efficient assembly. In this paper, we propose a new methodology to evaluate the suitability of a photonic system design for efficient optical, electronic and mechanical assembly. The intent of the methodology described in this paper is to focus attention on parts, processes and part types for time and cost efficient assembly. The methodology developed in the present paper is demonstrated using a commercial fiberoptic switch manufactured by Astarte Fiber Networks, Inc.