Luxtera, Inc.

Roman Malendevich

Myles A Sussman

Lawrence Cary Gunn, Iii

Thierry J Pinguet

Maxime Jean Rattier

Jeremy Witzens

Lawrence C Gunn Iii

This application describes, among others, wafer designs, testing systems and techniques for wafer-level optical testing by coupling probe light from top of the wafer.

Wafer-level testing of optical and optoelectronic chips

This application describes, among others, wafer designs, testing systems and techniques for wafer-level optical testing by coupling probe light to/from the top of a wafer. A wafer level test system uses optical and electronic probes to search for and align with an optoelectronic alignment structure. The test system uses a located optoelectronic alignment structure as a reference point to locate other devices on the wafer. The system tests the operation of selected devices disposed on the wafer. The optoelectronic alignment loop is also used as an alignment reference of known performance for an adjacent device of unknown performance.

Optoelectronic alignment structures for the wafer level testing of optical and optoelectronic chips

This application describes, among others, wafer designs, testing systems and techniques for wafer-level optical testing by coupling probe light to/from the top of the wafer. A wafer level test system uses an optical probe to search for and align with an optical alignment loop. The test system uses a located alignment loop as a reference point to locate other devices on the wafer. The test system tests the operation of selected devices disposed on the wafer. The alignment loop is also used as a reference device for an adjacent device of unknown performance.

Optical alignment loops for the wafer-level testing of optical and optoelectronic chips

This application describes, among others, wafer designs, testing systems and techniques for wafer-level optical testing by coupling probe light to/from the top of the wafer. During the optical testing, the vertical spacing between an optical probe and the wafer is set to a very close distance, to achieve efficient optical coupling. It is beneficial to keep this close distance during optical testing as a constant in testing different optical components at different locations on the wafer. In one implementation, a spacing sensor may be used to measure the height of the optical probe from the wafer surface. This sensor may be a capacitance sensor that is mounted at the optical probe.

Optical probes with spacing sensors for the wafer level testing of optical and optoelectronic chips

This application describes, among others, wafer designs, testing systems and techniques for wafer-level optical and optoelectronic testing by coupling probe light to/from the top of the wafer. In the described exemplary implementations, wafers are designed with one or more optical alignment features or structures. The alignment structures are alongside the devices to be tested, but are easier to find or locate by optical means, than the devices to be tested. An optical diffraction grating structure such as a Littrow grating may be used as reflective alignment structures. (FIG.B and paragraph 56.) A Littrow grating as an alignment structure produces a retro-reflection. A Littrow grating is a one-port optical device, with input and output beams going along the same path. Various exemplary implementations are shown in FIGS.C,A,B,A andB and described in paragraphs 18&#x2013;21, 39&#x2013;40 and 53&#x2013;64.

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Oceanside, CA, United States of America

Roman Malendevich