Intel Corporation

Jeremy Hicks

Hari Mahalingam

Harel Frish

Eric Snow

Christopher Seibert

Systems and methods for testing a photonic IC (PIC) with an optical probe having an out-of-plane edge coupler to convey test signals between the out-of-plane probe and an edge coupled photonic waveguide within a plane of the PIC. To accommodate dimensions of the optical probe, a test trench may be fabricated in the PIC near an edge coupler of the waveguide. The optical probe may be displaced along one or more axes relative to a prober to position a free end of the prober within the test trench and to align the probe's out-of-plane edge coupler with an edge coupler of a PIC waveguide. Accordingly, a PIC may be probed at the wafer-level, without first dicing a wafer into PIC chips or bars. The optical probe may be physically coupled to a prober through a contact sensor to detect and/or avoid physical contact between probe and PIC.

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Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Jeremy Hicks