Optical fibre assembly and method of making an optical fibre assembly

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017139133-A1
Application number	US-201515319964-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 17, 2015
Priority date	Jun 18, 2014
Publication date	May 18, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method of forming an optical fibre assembly, comprises providing a planar substrate made of a first material; positioning an optical fibre with an outer layer of a first glass material on a surface of the substrate to form a pre-assembly; depositing a further glass material such as silica soot onto the pre-assembly, over at least a part of the optical fibre and adjacent parts of the substrate surface; and heating the pre-assembly to consolidate the further glass material into an amorphous volume in contact with at least parts of the surface of the substrate and the outer layer of the optical fibre, thereby bonding the optical fibre to the substrate to create the optical fibre assembly.

First claim

1 . A method of forming an optical fibre assembly, comprising:
providing a planar substrate made of a first material; positioning an optical fibre with an outer layer of a first glass material on a surface of the substrate to form a pre-assembly; depositing a further glass material onto the pre-assembly, over at least a part of the optical fibre and adjacent parts of the substrate surface; and heating the pre-assembly to consolidate the further glass material into an amorphous volume in contact with at least parts of the surface of the substrate and the outer layer of the optical fibre, thereby bonding the optical fibre to the substrate to create the optical fibre assembly.

2 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein the first glass material and the further glass material are substantially the same material or are miscible alloys of each other.

3 . A method according to claim 2 , wherein the first material is substantially the same as or a miscible alloy of the first glass material and/or the further glass material.

4 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein an interface between the outer layer and the amorphous volume and/or an interface between the amorphous volume and the planar substrate are optically transmissive to wavelengths of light supported by the optical fibre.

5 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein the further glass material comprises silica.

6 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein the further glass material comprises a non-silicate glass.

7 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein the further glass material is a soot.

8 . A method according to claim 7 , wherein the soot is deposited using flame hydrolysis deposition.

9 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein the substrate has an oxide layer on its surface.

10 . A method according to claim 9 , wherein the oxide layer is thermally grown.

11 . A method according to claim 9 , further comprising forming the oxide layer on the surface of the substrate.

12 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein the further glass material includes one or more dopants.

13 . A method according to claim 12 , further comprising adding one or more dopants to the further glass material after depositing it, by solution doping or pressurised gas saturation.

14 . A method according to claim 8 , further comprising adding one or more dopants to the soot by injecting precursor vapours containing the one or more dopants into the flame hydrolysis deposition flame.

15 . A method according to claim 12 , wherein the one or more dopants comprise one or more of germanium, phosphorus, boron, aluminium, lead, bismuth, erbium, titanium, tin, ytterbium, neodymium, sodium, barium, calcium, lanthanum, holmium and silver.

16 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein positioning the optical fibre on the surface of the substrate comprises laying the optical fibre in a trench or groove in the substrate surface.

17 . A method according to claim 16 , further comprising positioning one or more further optical fibres on the surface of the substrate by laying the one or more further optical fibres in one or more further trenches or grooves in the substrate surface, where at least two trenches or grooves have different depths.

18 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein positioning the optical fibre onto the surface of the substrate comprises fusion splicing the optical fibre into its position.

19 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein positioning the optical fibre onto the surface of the substrate comprises passing the optical fibre through one or more holes in the substrate.

20 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein positioning the optical fibre onto the surface of the substrate comprises holding the optical fibre in position with one or more shims or mechanical clips.

21 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein the optical fibre includes a Bragg grating, and the substrate includes a planar waveguide having a Bragg grating and positioning the optical fibre on the surface of the substrate includes monitoring light reflected or transmitted from the Bragg gratings.

22 . A method according to claim 1 , further comprising masking one or more areas of the substrate surface and/or the positioned optical fibre before depositing the further glass material to prevent deposition of the further glass material onto the masked areas.

23 . A method according to claim 1 , further comprising, after consolidation, machining the optical fibre assembly to remove a part or parts of the substrate and/or the optical fibre.

24 . A method according to claim 1 , in which the substrate is a silica, silicon or sapphire substrate.

25 . An optical fibre assembly comprising:
a planar substrate made of first material; an optical fibre with an outer layer of a first glass material; and an amorphous volume of a further glass material in contact with at least parts of the surface of the substrate and the outer layer of the optical fibre which bonds the optical fibre to the substrate.

26 . An optical fibre assembly according to claim 25 , wherein the first glass material and the further glass material are substantially the same material or are miscible alloys of each other.

27 . An optical fibre assembly according to claim 25 , wherein the first material is substantially the same as or a miscible alloy of the first glass material and/or the further glass material.

28 . An optical fibre assembly according to claim 25 , wherein an interface between the outer layer and the amorphous volume and/or an interface between the amorphous volume and the planar substrate are optically transmissive to wavelengths of light supported by the optical fibre.

29 . An optical fibre assembly according to claim 25 , wherein the further glass material is silica.

30 . An optical fibre assembly according to claim 25 , wherein the further glass material is a non-silicate glass.

31 . An optical fibre assembly according to claim 25 , wherein the substrate has an oxide layer on its surface.

32 . An optical fibre assembly according to claim 25 , wherein the further glass material includes one or more dopants.

33 . An optical fibre assembly according to claim 32 , wherein the one or more dopants comprise one or more of germanium, phosphorus, boron, aluminium, lead, bismuth, erbium, titanium, tin, ytterbium, neodymium, sodium, barium, calcium, lanthanum, holmium and silver.

34 . An optical fibre assembly according to claim 25 , further comprising a planar waveguiding structure defined in the substrate, the optical fibre and the planar waveguiding structure being in optical alignment with each other.

35 . An optical fibre assembly according to claim 25 , further comprising one or more additional optical fibres bonded to the substrate with the said or one or more further amorphous volumes of the further glass material.

36 . An optical fibre assembly fabricated according to the method of claim 1 .

37 . (canceled)

38 . (canceled)

Assignees

• Univ Southampton

Inventors

• Holmes Christopher
• Smith Peter George Robin
• Gates James Christopher
• Carpenter Lewis Glynn

Classifications

• G02B6/34

  utilising prism or grating {(G02B6/293 takes precedence)} · CPC title

• G02B2006/12111

  Fibre · CPC title

• G02B6/122 Primary

  Basic optical elements, e.g. light-guiding paths · CPC title

• G02B6/3692

  with surface micromachining involving etching, e.g. wet or dry etching steps (surface micromachining involving subtractive techniques B81C1/00055) · CPC title

• G02B6/3636 Primary

  the mechanical coupling means being grooves (G02B6/3652 takes precedence) · CPC title