Electric-Circuit-Embedded Polymer Optical Bench

Abstract

In order to overcome the shortcomings of silicon optical bench with surface-patterned electric circuits, an electric-circuit-embedded polymer optical bench was developed. The main design issue was to embed the electric circuit under the optical bench and to let the electric contact pads be opened at the bottom of the alignment pits. To accommodate the surplus conductive adhesive, adhesive-fill space was created at the alignment pits. This architectural invention provides not only more efficient fiber-chip coupling of the planar-lightwave-circuit-type optical waveguide device but also a good electrical contact. An upside-down mounted single-mode waveguide chip showed a coupling loss of about 0.9 dB per coupling face with a single-mode fiber at a wavelength of 1.5 mum