Micro-engineered fibre-ribbon termination for reflective modulator arrays

Actively aligned fibre termination can be a significant cost contribution to the manufacture of optoelectronic components. Micro-machined piece-parts can allow a self-aligned construction to be used, with consequent savings. This paper describes the design and realisation of a self-aligned fibre-ribbon termination for a modulator array intended for a high-energy physics optical interconnect application at CERN. The InP MQW reflective modulator elements are vertical entry, with an effective diameter of 40 /spl mu/m, at 250 /spl mu/m pitch. Optical access is from the substrate side, and single mode fibres must be coupled to the reverse side of the semiconductor substrate.