In the 1990's Fiberguide developed 2-dimensional arrays of single mode fibers to meet extraordinarily demanding specifications of Lucent Technologies' Bell Laboratories. They needed the centerlines of 361 fibers in a 19 x 19 array to be positioned to an absolute accuracy of ± 2.0 microns over the entire array. This required a positioning accuracy beyond that possible with conventional machining methods.

The solution developed and patented by the technical staff at Fiberguide is to use an alignment plate with holes in it to guide the fibers into position. The plate is made from a wafer of silicon and the position of each hole is established by the same photolithographic and etching methods that are used to make electronic integrated circuits. Fiberguide can adapt this technology to make both linear (1-dimensional) and 2-dimensional arrays to specific customer needs.

FEATURES

• Meets or exceeds Telcordia GR-1221-CORE: Reliability Qualification Requirements for Passive Optical Components.

• Manufactured to customer's own unique application and/or specification.

• Precise positioning accuracy for high performance.

• Center-to-center pitch from 150μm to 5mm.

• Designed utilizing single mode or multimode fiber.

• Strain relief packaging.

• Distal ends can be provided cleaved, polished, or terminated with a wide variety of standard connectors or

customized endfittings.

• Detailed test documentation provided with each array on:

- Fiber position

- Insertion loss

- Flatness

- Return loss

- Fiber "Z" axis position

- RMS for fiber roughness

- Fiber-to-fiber angularity

- Fiber-to-substrate angularity

APPLICATIONS

• 3D MEMS switch

• Optical crossbar switch

• Control of a wideband array transmitter

• Fiber optic switch

• Space and wavelength multiplexed data channels

• Signal processing

• Free space parallel interconnects

• Astronomical analysis

• Military mapping

• DNA micro-array technology

• Multiplexed screening and analysis for biosensors

• Optical tomography