Packaging technologies for large-scale integrated-optic planar lightwave circuits

Summary form only given. Packaging technologies are important in order to utilize planar lightwave circuits (PLCs) practically in indoor and outdoor environments. There is no clear guideline for categorizing large-scale integrated-optic PLCs. However, in this paper, a star coupler and an arrayed-waveguide grating (AWG) multiplexer with channel number more than 32, and a matrix optical switch with a scale more than 8×8, are categorized as large-scale PLCs because of their large channel-number or large number of switch elements. Developmental objectives and techniques for packaging large-scale integrated-optic PLCs are described.