A Novel Technique for High-Strength Direct Fiber-to-Si Submount Attachment Using Field-Assisted Anodic Bonding for Optoelectronics Packaging

Abstract

A large portion of the cost for commercial fiber-coupled optoelectronics is packaging. Developments which reduce packaging time, eliminate components, and improve packaging automation can have an enormous impact in reducing cost and increasing availability of packaged lasers and receivers. One key step for fiber-coupled devices is alignment of the fiber to the device and rigid attachment of the fiber. In this letter, we present a new technique for bonding fiber autoaligned directly to an active device or waveguide on a Si-submount using field-assisted anodic bonding. Silica fibers coated with a high-Na+ glass (through sputtering of Pyrex, or coating and curing with liquid sodium silicate solution) are placed in a metallized v-groove on the Si submount and anodically bonded. This bond has shear strength comparable to solder-bonded components (>600 g) and the v-groove autoaligns the fiber to the component in two of the three dimensions. This novel combination of anodic bonding and coated fiber on precision fabricated v-grooves eliminates lenses and packaging time, will lead to lower-cost packages, and will facilitate multicomponent optical submounts and other novel optoelectronic technology.