HIGH-POWER AND HIGH-SENSITIVITY PLANAR LIGHTWAVE CIRCUIT MODULE INCORPORATING A NOVEL PASSIVE ALIGNMENT METHOD

A high-power, high-sensitivity planar lightwave circuit (PLC) module, comprising a laser diode (LD) and a photodiode (PD) surface mounted on a PLC platform, has been realized by a novel passive alignment techni que. We used a spot-size transformed LD and a corner-illuminated PD to form a highly efficient optical coupling between the devices and a PL C waveguide. We used the unique marker alignment method to ensure accu rate positioning of them. The positioning precision achieved in the la teral direction was within 1 mu m for the LD's and within 10 mu m for the PD's. The rotational precision was within 0.4 degrees for-both chi ps. We realized high power operation (>8 mW) with a high receiver sens itivity (0.3 A/W). In this paper, we describe a high power, high sensi tivity PLC incorporating a novel passive optical alignment technique f or LD's and PD's.