Abstract
In order to increase the accuracy of a 6-axis motorized fiber alignment stage, a geometric and kinematic error model was established. A low-order body array was introduced to describe the general topological structure of the alignment stage; a homogeneous error transformation matrix was adopted to present the combination and kinematic errors of a typical case in a multi-body system; the structure and kinematic relationship of a 6-axis motorized fiber alignment stage as well as the corresponding error equation were built via the multi-body system error theory; the error distribution state and sensitivity characteristics of the 6-axis motorized fiber alignment stage were further analyzed; and the error compensation strategy was developed. The experimental results indicated that using inline error compensation for improving the alignment accuracy of the automatic alignment system for optical waveguide devices was very effective.
Highlights
IntroductionSince the 1980s, optical fiber communication technology has generated revolutionary developments in the communication industry through the advantages it offers such as wide band systems, huge information capacities, low transmission losses, and antielectromagnetic interference.[1,2,3] Fiber communication devices such as planar waveguide splitters,[4] array waveguide gratings,[5] and optical switches[6] are the basis of fiber communication networks, along with the premise of realizing low-loss alignment couplings of the fibers and the optical waveguide chips.[7,8,9] The core diameter of a single mode fiber is 8–9 mm, and the optical channel section feature size of an optical waveguide chip is
In order to increase the kinematic accuracy of the optical fiber and waveguide chip alignment, a geometric and kinematic error model of the 6-axis motorized stage was necessary
Alignment sensitive error is an error term which has a great influence on the optical waveguide chip and optical fiber alignment in a 6-axis motorized optical fiber alignment stage error source, including any factors that are amplified or reduced in the error propagation process
Summary
Since the 1980s, optical fiber communication technology has generated revolutionary developments in the communication industry through the advantages it offers such as wide band systems, huge information capacities, low transmission losses, and antielectromagnetic interference.[1,2,3] Fiber communication devices such as planar waveguide splitters,[4] array waveguide gratings,[5] and optical switches[6] are the basis of fiber communication networks, along with the premise of realizing low-loss alignment couplings of the fibers and the optical waveguide chips.[7,8,9] The core diameter of a single mode fiber is 8–9 mm, and the optical channel section feature size of an optical waveguide chip is. Owing to manufacturing characteristics of components, assemblies, and other parts, there exist inevitable errors in the motorized stage, and combinations of various types of errors that would cause the stage to deviate from its predetermined path, resulting in increased alignment difficulties.[11,12] In order to increase the kinematic accuracy of the optical fiber and waveguide chip alignment, a geometric and kinematic error model of the 6-axis motorized stage was necessary. According to the coordinate translation and rotation change rule, the homogeneous characteristic matrix was adopted, to describe the comprehensive transformation matrix that was caused by the errors of Dx, Dy, Dz, Da, Db, and Dg. The optical fiber alignment stage was combined with highly accurate motorized platforms, which have small axis angular errors of Da, Db, and Dg. Its sine value could be approximated by the radian in a computational analysis, allowing the higher order term to be neglected. The basic installation position and static errors between the adjacent objects are indicated by the corner mark p, and the kinematic as well as the basic kinematic errors are presented by the corner mark s
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