Silicon photonics packaging automation: Problems, challenges, and considerations

Abstract

This chapter will give a survey on the problems and the challenges related to the necessity to automatize the fiber array pigtailing and the laser integration in relation to silicon photonic devices. In fact the only way to make silicon photonics technology really exploitable at industrial level is to solve the manufacturing bottlenecks that nowadays limit the applicability of the technology, in particular related to the multiple optical outputs pluggability and the laser integration. It will start giving some detailed information on what have been developed so far in terms of state-of-the-art pigtailing-automated benches, robotics and their present limitation, making consideration on what will be necessary in the near future.It will then give a survey and an evaluation, respect to automation, on some of the most recent and interesting developments for silicon photonic packaging, in particular for the optical fiber coupling and the future desired pluggable solutions.