A novel assembling technique for fiber collimator arrays using UV-curable adhesives

Abstract

Packaging and assembly covers almost 80% of the overall cost of any fiber-optic devices. It is thus a demanding issue to lower the cost of fiber-optic alignment and attachment process. This work summarizes the results for the development of automated alignment and attachment processes for the packaging of 1/spl times/8 collimator arrays, which are critical for many photonic devices. The emphasis of this work is on the comparison of the use of three different UV-curing adhesives (Adhesives A, B, and C). It is concluded that regardless of curing shrinkage, a proper adhesive joint design can alleviate the optical loss effect of the relative fiber-lens displacement induced during curing and the subsequent cooling processes.