Authors:	K. Naessens, S. Boons, A. Van Hove, T. Coosemans, S. Verstuyft, H. Ottevaere, L. Vanwassenhove, P. Van Daele, R. Baets
Title:	Excimer laser ablated U-groove alignment structure for optical fibre arrays
Format:	International Conference Proceedings
Publication date:	11/1999
Journal/Conference/Book:	Proceedings Symposium IEEE/LEOS Benelux Chapter, 1999
Editor/Publisher:	ISBN 2-9600226-0-2,
Volume(Issue):	p.187-190
Location:	Mons, Belgium
Citations:	Look up on Google Scholar
Download:	(576KB)

Abstract

Laser ablation is extremely well suited for rapid prototyping in a research environment and proves to be a versatile technique delivering high accuracy dimensioning and repeatability of features in a wide diversity of materials. In the paper, we present laser ablation as a fabrication method for micro-machining of arrays of precisely dimensioned U-grooves in dedicated polycarbonate and PMMA plates. The dependency of the performance on various parameters (wavelength, energy density and pulse frequency) will be discussed. The fabricated plates are used to hold optical fibre arrays and are key components in the assembly of 2D optical connectors for short distance optical interconnection.