Abstract

One of the most critical elements of opto-electronic packaging, coupling of semiconductor laser light into single mode fiber, is currently being done either passively or actively. Passive alignment is an inexpensive batch-process in which the laser, lens and fiber are positioned using photolithograpically defined solder bumps and stops. The positioning accuracy, and hence the coupling efficiency, is considerably worse than that achieved by active alignment where the coupling is monitored during positioning of the optical elements. We describe a new approach (Fig. 1), which incorporates a moveable, micromachined alignment mirror in a passively aligned package. This can potentially retain the low cost of passively aligned packages and yet achieve the high optical performance of actively aligned packages.

© 1994 Optical Society of America