Packaging of optoelectronic devices with high coupling efficiency using silicon V-groove technology

Summary form only given. Volume manufacturing of optical devices using the silicon V-groove technology is now well established. As a substrate, silicon is cheap, stable, has good thermal conductivity and is amenable to processing using commercially available equipment. V-grooves produced using anisotropic etching of the substrate allow passive alignment of optical components such as fibers and ball lenses. Devices assembled in this manner are reliable and of low cost. Furthermore, the silicon V-groove technology is extendable both to arrays of components and high speeds. For some devices, such as DFB lasers and semiconductor optical amplifiers, coupling efficiencies of 50% or more are required. In these cases the statistical nature of the distribution of coupling efficiency associated with passive alignment may not be acceptable. For these applications, an active alignment technique has been developed, which maintains the major advantages of the silicon V-groove platform but allows high efficiency devices to be assembled with excellent yield. In this approach the fiber is held in an etched silicon carrier, which interlocks with the device substrate. This alignment technique has been used to assemble highly coupled DFB lasers into a ceramic mini-DIL package for use in uncooled applications.