A novel device of passive and fixed alignment of optical fiber

Abstract

In the microoptics field, precise alignment is very important to reduce the coupling losses in optical links. In this paper, a novel device of passive and fixed alignment of optical fiber is proposed. The rectangular V-groove formed by one sidewall of SU-8 resist and the substrate is used to position the optical fiber, and the leaf spring with flexure hinge clamps it. The spring is fabricated by the sacrificial layer technique. The clamping force provided by the spring acts on the upper semi-circle of the optical fiber’s cross section, so that the device need not use the additional cover on the optical fiber to perform the vertical location and the final fixing. It has simple structure and process, and is convenient to assemble and integrate with other microparts. The coupling of two optical fibers using the devices in our experiment has less than 1.5 dB insert loss.