Assembly and testing remain the highest cost factors in photonic integrated circuit (PIC) production. To address this issue, international collaborations around the globe are actively researching new manufacturing concepts for PIC technology. The goal of these projects is to provide industry with an eco-system that will enable manufacturing to progress from the 1000s to the 100,000s and even millions, from single chip assembly to wafer-level approaches.

ficonTEC has consistently retained involvement in these initiatives in order to stay ahead of industry requirement. Add to this 20 years of development, continually working closely with the customer, and an invaluable modular approach to machine equipment design – all this uniquely places ficonTEC in a position to thoroughly describe your production requirements in terms of industry qualified process capabilities.

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A brief introduction to an increasingly critical aspect in photonic device manufacturing

The assembly (align-&-attach) of micro-optical elements, fiber-optic connections and/or optoelectronic chips and components in to finished and qualified photonic devices is what we at ficonTEC categorize as photonics assembly & test. To a degree, this incorporates ‘packaging’ too. Typical devices include telecom/datacom transceivers (TOSA/ROSA/BOSA), infrastructure devices for 5G networks, 3D laser scanners for use in commercial sensing as well as automotive and aerospace (lidar) systems, integrated photonic integrated circuits (PICs), high-power multi-emitter laser assemblies, micro-optical and optofluidic systems, integrated camera modules, and much more.

Advanced automation of the assembly process steps requires multi-axis, sub-micron-accuracy (passive/active) component alignment, and subsequent bonding using (UV-) epoxy compounds, thermal-based or laser soldering and/or laser welding. In particular, all manufacturing steps need to be compliant with stringent and often individual requirements for yield, process repeatability and performance reliability, while still enabling minimal process cycle time and minimum downtime.

In-production devices, from simple devices such as laser diode chips and VCSELs, all the way up to the more complex devices noted above, all additionally need testing both at various stages during assembly and at ‘end-of-line’. This often encompasses burn-in, LIV tests, beam and spectral characterization, as well as device design validation and performance verification.

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