Self-aligned positioning of microoptical components by precision prismaticgrooves impressed into metals

Grooves embossed into metallic substrates are proposed for self-aligned pos itioning of microoptical components like microlenses, optical fibers, glass rods with mirrors or filters, etc As substrates, both ductile metals such as aluminum or copper, and hard alloys like CrNi steel can be used, which a llows adaptation to requirements concerning thermal expansion coefficient, thermal conductance, hardness, mechanical strength, solderability, weldabil ity, etc. Compared to other methods such as anisotropic etching in silicon substrates and LIGA, this technique offers more design flexibility and much lower investment cost and is well suited far medium production numbers. By the embossing process, the shape and surface quality of the embossing die are virtually transferred into the groove. The residual deviation between d ie and groove is in the order of 5-10 mu m. The reproducibility is better t han 5 mu m, thus allowing self-aligned positioning with multimode fiber app lications. Without reconditioning, several thousand embossing cycles can be made with the same die. The manufacturing of embossing dies is based on pr ecision tooling techniques. The paper concludes with two application exampl es of optical communication components. [341].