Direct coupling of VCSELs to plastic optical fibers using guide holes patterned in a thick photoresist

Author

Ouchi, T. ; Imada, A. ; Sato, T. ; Sakata, H.

Author_Institution

Res. Center, Canon Inc., Kanagawa, Japan

Volume

14

Issue

3

fYear

2002

fDate

3/1/2002 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

263

Lastpage

265

Abstract

We report a simple passive alignment method to couple plastic optical fibers (POFs) to vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) for use in parallel optical interconnects. Polymer guide holes were fabricated directly on the top of VCSELs by means of standard photolithography using SU-8 epoxy-based thick photoresist. Perfluorinated graded-index POFs were inserted and fixed in the guide holes to provide butt-coupled packaging modules. For a VCSEL of 15-μm diameter and a POF of 124-μm core diameter, coupling efficiencies were obtained between about 80% and 50%, depending on drive current. The standard deviation of the efficiency at a drive current of 10 mA was 5.9% for a 1 × 5 array.

Keywords

integrated optics; optical fabrication; optical fibre couplers; optical interconnections; photolithography; surface emitting lasers; 124 micron; 15 micron; SU-8 epoxy-based thick photoresist; butt-coupled packaging modules; direct coupling; low-cost modules; parallel optical interconnects; passive alignment method; perfluorinated graded-index fibers; photolithography; plastic optical fiber coupling; thick photoresist patterned guide holes; vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers; Fiber lasers; Lithography; Optical coupling; Optical fibers; Optical interconnections; Plastics; Polymers; Resists; Surface emitting lasers; Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/68.986780

Filename

986780