Fabrication of a micro-optical coupling structure by laser ablation

Low cost packaging, and in particular passive alignment, is an important issue in optical device packaging. A hot embossing process using a micro-mold is a novel means to manufacture polymer optical waveguides and the pedestals for passive alignment simultaneously. In this study, a high precision optical coupling structure for fabrication of a micro-mold with electroplating was manufactured by a Ti:sapphire laser ablation system. With an optimized laser ablation procedure for quartz, it was demonstrated that the laser ablation offers an accuracy of ±1 μm and good surface quality for manufacturing narrow pitch multi-channel micro-molds for low-cost optical device packaging.