Fiber tray apparatus and method for handling a fiber-array/silicon-photonics-die assembly

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9864146-B1
Application number	US-201615356438-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Nov 18, 2016
Priority date	Nov 18, 2016
Publication date	Jan 9, 2018
Grant date	Jan 9, 2018

Abstract

An apparatus for handling a fiber-array to be attached with a silicon-photonics chip. The apparatus includes a bottom-plate having a first trench formed with two first branches connected to two first recessed regions at a first end and one second branch straight to a second end thereof and a second trench sharing the same second branch and having two third branches connected to two second recessed regions with an angle towards two sides outside the two first branches. The bottom-plate includes many female clip structures located at the first end, the second end, and the two sides. The apparatus includes a top-plate having corresponding male clip structures configured to lock with the female clip structures to at least have two shaped cavities at the first end for firmly holding fiber ferrules of the fiber-array substantially without lateral and axial motion while leaving excess lengths of fibers outside the second end.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of using a fiber tray to handle a fiber-array in association with a silicon-photonics chip, the fiber tray comprising:
a bottom-plate comprising a first Y-shaped trench and a second Y-shaped trench formed in a top surface thereof, the first Y-shaped trench having two first branches respectively connected to two first recessed regions straightly towards a first end of the bottom-plate and one second branch laid backwards to a second end of the bottom-plate, the second Y-shaped trench sharing the same second branch and having two third branches laid outside the two first branches respectively connected to two second recessed regions with an angle towards two sides of the bottom-plate, the bottom-plate comprising a plurality of female clip structures formed at both the first end and the second end;
a top-plate comprising two third recessed regions formed in a bottom surface at a third end thereof, two fourth recessed regions formed in the bottom surface with the angle respectively towards two sides of the top-plate, and a plurality of male clip structures formed at both the third end and the fourth end;
wherein the plurality of male clip structures is configured to lock respectively with the plurality of female clip structures as the bottom surface of the top-plate is engaged with the top surface of the bottom-plate with the third end being aligned with the first end and the fourth end being aligned with the second end such that the two third recessed regions are opposed to the two first recessed regions to form two first cavities connected to the two first branches of the first Y-shaped trench enclosed therein and the two fourth recessed regions are opposed to the two second recessed region to form two second cavities connected to the two third branches of the second Y-shaped trench enclosed therein;
the method comprising:
disposing a fiber-array of two PM fibers of excess lengths having one end terminated by two LC ferrules and two single-mode fibers of excess lengths having one end terminated by two LC receptacles to the bottom plate, the two PM fibers being loaded in the first Y-shaped trench with the two LC ferrules being held inside the two first recessed regions at the first end and two bare fibers of extra lengths extended outside the second end, the two single-mode fibers being loaded in the second Y-shaped trench with the two LC receptacles being held inside the two second recessed regions at two sides and two bare fibers of extra lengths extended outside the second end via the second branch commonly shared by the two PM fibers;
covering the top-plate over the bottom-plate by mating the plurality of male clip structures of the top-plate with the corresponding plurality of female clip structures to substantially fixedly hold the fiber-array in the fiber tray with at least the two LC ferrules being partially enclosed in the two first cavities substantially without lateral and axial motion except rotation with two tip regions of the two LC ferrules being exposed outside the first end and the two LC receptacles being partially enclosed in the two second cavities substantially without lateral and axial motion;
cleaving the fiber-array by laser at a predetermined distance away from the second end along a perpendicular line within +/−10 microns;
aligning the two PM fibers in the fiber-array;
attaching a length from the cleaved end of the fiber-array with the aligned PM fibers to a silicon-photonics chip;
providing epoxy to the length of the fiber-array while placing a cover lid over thereof and adding strain relief epoxy around a near-by section of the fiber-array beyond the cover lid;
installing a protective cover from the second end to the fiber tray to enclose the silicon-photonics chip attached with the fiber-array;
mounting the bottom-plate of the fiber tray onto a test station for conducting optical and electrical tests on the silicon-photonics chip attached with the fiber-array, the fiber-array being fixedly held in the fiber tray with correspondingly two LC receptacles respectively connected to two external fibers via two LC ferrules and two LC ferrules respectively coupled to other two external fibers via two LC receptacles.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the bottom-plate further comprises a pair of female clip structures formed at edge regions of two sides beyond the two second recessed regions.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein aligning the two PM fibers comprising rotating two LC ferrules from the tip regions exposed outside the first end to adjust orientation of two stress rods of each PM fiber.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein attaching a length from the cleaved end of the fiber-array comprises loading the length of each fiber into one of multiple V-grooves etched in a top surface of the silicon-photonics chip, wherein the cleaved end of each fiber is in contact with a nanotaper position of a corresponding V-grove connecting a waveguide and the two stress rods of each PM fiber is aligned to be in parallel with the top surface.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the bottom-plate further comprises an open slot disposed from the second end in a bottom surface below the second branch shared by the first Y-shaped trench and the second Y-shaped trench thereof.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the protective cover comprises a first member and a second member joined by a hinge, the first member having a tail portion configured to be slide into the open slot from the second end to couple with the bottom-plate and allow the silicon-photonics chip attached with the fiber-array to be rested in a recessed region thereof, the second member being configured to flip back to lock with the first member to enclose the silicon-photonics chip in the recessed region.

Assignees

• Inphi Corp

Inventors

• Fu Pei-Keng
• Togami Chris Kiyoshi
• Kato Masaki
• Nagarajan Radhakrishnan L

Classifications

• G02B6/3893

  Push-pull type, e.g. snap-in, push-on · CPC title

• G02B6/30 Primary

  for use between fibre and thin-film device · CPC title

• G02B6/3636 Primary

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

• G02B6/4249

  comprising arrays of active devices and fibres · CPC title

• G02B6/4243

  Mounting of the optical light guide into a groove (mounting optical light guides into a groove in general G02B6/3636) · CPC title