Automated fiber pigtailing technology

Conference · Tue Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1994

OSTI ID:10125499

Strand, O T; Lowry, M E; Lu, S Y; Nelson, D C; Nikkel, D J; Pocha, M D; Young, K D

The high cost of optoelectronic (OE) devices is due mainly to the labor-intensive packaging process. Manually pigtailing such devices as single-mode laser diodes and modulators is very time consuming with poor quality control. The Photonics Program and the Engineering Research Division at LLNL are addressing several issues associated with automatically packaging OE devices. A furry automated system must include high-precision fiber alignment, fiber attachment techniques, in-situ quality control, and parts handling and feeding. This paper will present on-going work at LLNL in the areas of automated fiber alignment and fiber attachment. For the fiber alignment, we are building an automated fiber pigtailing machine (AFPM) which combines computer vision and object recognition algorithms with active feedback to perform sub-micron alignments of single-mode fibers to modulators and laser diodes. We expect to perform sub-micron alignments in less than five minutes with this technology. For fiber attachment, we are building various geometries of silicon microbenches which include on-board heaters to solder metal-coated fibers and other components in place; these designs are completely compatible with an automated process of OE packaging. We have manually attached a laser diode, a thermistor, and a thermo-electric heater to one of our microbenches in less than 15 minutes using the on-board heaters for solder reflow; an automated process could perform this same exercise in only a few minutes. Automated packaging techniques such as these will help lower the costs of OE devices.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 10125499
• Report Number(s): UCRL-JC--116148; CONF-940596--1; ON: DE94007072
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
320303
42 ENGINEERING
426000
440600
47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION
ALIGNMENT
AUTOMATION
COMPONENTS
ELECTRON DEVICES AND CIRCUITS
COST
ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS
EQUIPMENT AND PROCESSES
FIBER OPTICS
MANUFACTURING
OPTICAL EQUIPMENT
OPTICAL INSTRUMENTATION
PROCESS CONTROL
SEMICONDUCTOR LASERS