Flexible pillars for displacement compensation in optical chip assembly

• Published in: IEEE photonics technology letters 2006-04, Vol.18 (8), p.974-976
• Main Authors: Glebov, A.L., Bhusari, D., Kohl, P., Bakir, M.S., Meindl, J.D., Lee, M.G.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Assembly systems; Bit error rate; Budgeting; Compensation; Detectors; Devices; Displacement; High speed optical techniques; Optical assembly and packaging; Optical interconnections; Optical interconnects; optical interconnects (OIs); Optical losses; Optical polymers; Optical sensors; Optical waveguides; Photonics; Pillars; polymers; Surface-mount technology; Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers; waveguides
• ISSN: 1041-1135; 1941-0174
• DOI: 10.1109/LPT.2006.873563

In chip-to-chip optical interconnect systems with surface mounted light-sources and detectors, thermal and mechanical effects can cause lateral displacements of the assembled devices. These displacements can result in optical signal losses that can critically deteriorate the bit-error-rate of the digital system. We demonstrate that, for a given loss budget of 1 dB, the use of flexible optical pillars with 150-μm height and 50-μm diameter can double the lateral displacement tolerance from about 15 to 30 μm. The pillars fabricated from Avatrel polymer form an air-free path between the light source and the substrate and cause maximum optical power losses less than 0.2 dB.