Study of automatic alignment technology for fiber-optic devices packaging

The automation of fiber-optic alignment is the most challenging among fiber-optic packaging issues and therefore is a critical manufacturing technology for reducing its cost. Because of its advantages of fast convergence and easy-implementation, this paper studies the feasibility of applying a modified simplex method to fiber-to-optic alignment process on a real fiber-optic alignment machine. A series of experiments were conducted for the alignment of a single mode fiber coupled with laser diode. The performance of the alignment process using this method is investigated, and the relevant problems are discussed. Through these experiments, an optimal initial simplex size is found to guarantee a successful alignment for all initial positions and a satisfactory convergence speed.