Apparatus for aligning and method of bonding optical waveguide device to optical fiber block

Abstract

An apparatus for aligning an optical waveguide device has functional waveguides for transmitting signal light and internal and external waveguides, located on the periphery of the functional waveguides, with optical fiber blocks and includes an optical source, a first optical fiber block having a plurality of first functional optical fibers each connected to one end of each of the functional waveguides, and a plurality of first alignment optical fibers each aligned with one end of each of the internal and external waveguides for transmitting light generated by the optical source, a second optical fiber block having a plurality of second functional optical fibers each connected to the other end of each of the functional waveguides, and a plurality of second alignment optical fibers each aligned with the other end of each of the internal and external waveguides, a measuring unit for measuring an intensity of light output from the second alignment optical fibers, and a controller for receiving the intensity of light from the measuring unit and finely adjusting the alignment of the first optical fiber block with the optical waveguide device and the optical waveguide device with the second optical fiber block in order to maximize the received intensity of light. A waveguide-type optical device can be aligned with optical fiber blocks regardless of the wavelength, by using input and output alignment optical fibers and internal and external bending waveguides in the optical device. Therefore, there is no need to know accurately the wavelength properties of an individual device.