Laser supported fibre array alignment with individual fibre fine positioning

An innovative design is presented enabling fine positioning of each individual fibre in a fibre array used in multiple input and output ports photonic integrated circuits. With this technology, the performance of fibre arrays can improve by eliminating the eccentricities of the lenses deposited on the individual fibres and the inaccuracies of the supporting V-groove substrates. The alignment accuracy is in the sub-micron range and this concept is based on metal deformation by laser-welding induced local heat. It enables us to precisely introduce step-by-step deformations in the constructions (despite the already secured position of the fibre tips and the adjustment construction). The smallest fine-tuning step is 0.05 /spl mu/m and the fibres are aligned over a range of 10 /spl mu/m - 25 /spl mu/m. The performance of different types of regular commercially fabricated fibre arrays, with fibres mounted in silicon V-groove substrates has been determined in order to compare these with the performance of the proposed fibre array design.