The Luminos Photonics Integrated Circuit (PIC) Alignment System provides a compact workstation allowing up to four sided alignment for assembly of complex PIC devices.

 

There are many new and emerging Photonics Devices, including the fields of Quantum Computing / Quantum Photonics, where it is often necessary to optically align waveguides to adjacent sides (or surfaces) of another planar waveguide or Photonics Integrated Circuit. In the extreme case of needing to align to all four sides of a substrate at once, the physical size and form factor of most automated positioning stages makes implementing an “X” setup awkward if not impractical. Most automated alignment systems rely on active optimization software to control coarse travel + fine travel piezo stages to hold an optical path in alignment. Idling such an alignment system for any length of time, in order to take measurements, can therefore introduce significant optical drifts.

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The Luminos PIC Alignment System incorporates a special purpose FAH002 Fiber Array Holder with a narrow tip profile, which facilitates up to 4 sided alignment around a small substrate. Clamping adjustment knobs are located on the end of the holder to remove the need to have fingers or tools into the central area. The holder has two knobs providing adjustable clamping forces, one for pushing the array against a side stop, and a second knob to control clamping the array against a precision lapped seating surface. Contact to the array itself is made with two tiny 4mm diameter ball-bearings which offer enough alignment free-play to ensure flat uniform contact with the array. As supplied, the FAH002 can hold arrays up to 6mm width, while an optional Side Stop Plate is available for holding larger 16 fiber arrays.

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Luminos Positioners utilize a unique in-line actuator configuration to enable even the most challenging alignment configurations such as an "X” configuration. Luminos Positioners provide a concurrent center for all rotational axes, projected 1 inch out in-front of the positioner. Luminos Positioners use a patented frictionless flexure design that is internally temperature compensated, with thermal expansion characteristics similar to a monotonic block of aluminum. These features enable Luminos Positioners to idle for long periods of time (hours, days, weeks) in a laboratory environment while maintaining a consistent optical signal path. See Positioner Stability for more information.

 

For all automated versions of Luminos Positioners, drift due to heating effects of motors is reduced for the critical X & Y axes by the use of patented Ratio Drive™ with actuator resolution and stability improved by 5X or 25X depending on the positioner series chosen. These unique design attributes make Luminos Positioning Stages ideal for implementing an “X” alignment system capable of aligning optical waveguides to all four sides of a substrate.