JPH0264506A - Optical waveguide type element and production thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate the need for inserting thin filters into narrow grooves and to extremely facilitate production operations by providing filters to reflect light of prescribed wavelengths or allow the transmission thereof to the cut parts of a substrate. CONSTITUTION:The substrate 1 formed with plural optical waveguides 2 is cut at the cut parts 21, 22. The filter which reflects the light of the wavelength lambda1 and allows the transmission of the light of the wavelengths lambda2, lambda3 is provided to the 1st waveguide 27 of the cut part 21. On the other hand, the filter which reflects the light of lambda2 and allows the transmission of the light of lambda3 is provided to the 3rd waveguide 29 of the cut part 23. The cut parts 21, 22 are recoupled and optical fiber arrays 31, 33 are fixed in tight contact to both sides. Plural optical waveguide type demultiplexers 35 are obtd. when the substrate is cut at chain lines 34. The light of wavelength lambda1 of the light of the wavelengths lambda1, lambda2, lambda3 from the optical fiber 30 is reflected by the cut part 21 and the light of the wavelength lambda2 is reflected by the cut part 22. The light of the wavelength lambda3 is emitted to the optical fiber 32.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to the structure of an optical waveguide element used in optical communication components and the like, and a method for manufacturing the element.

[Conventional technology]

Figure 8 shows the structure of the substrate of a duplexer as an optical waveguide element.
) of the optical waveguides (2), light (4) containing predetermined wavelengths λ1, λ2, λ3 is incident on the first waveguide (3), and the second
waveguide (5), third waveguide (6), fourth waveguide (
7) with wavelengths λ1, λ2, and λ3, respectively (8), (
9) and (10). For this purpose, only the light of wavelength λl is reflected at the branching part (11),
A thin glass filter (1
2), and a filter (14) that reflects only the light of wavelength λ2 and transmits the light of wavelength λ3 must be provided at the branching part (13). Conventionally, this filter (14) is arranged perpendicularly to the plane '(15) of the substrate (1) and at a predetermined angle with respect to the waveguide (2) with a width of 40 to 100μ.
m grooves (16) and (17) are formed, and this groove (lδ),
Filters (12) and (14) were embedded in (17), respectively.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) However, in manufacturing the conventional optical waveguide device as described above, it is a difficult task to form extremely narrow grooves (16) and (17). Groove (lδ), (
17), the thin glass filters (12) and (14) had to be inserted into the filter, which resulted in poor workability and was time-consuming.

Furthermore, since glass is used as the material for the filters (12) and (14), there is a problem in that the loss of light in the filters (12) and (14) is large.

The present invention was made to solve such problems,
It is an object of the present invention to provide an optical waveguide type device that is easy to manufacture and a method for manufacturing the same, and also to provide a manufacturing method that can simultaneously manufacture a large number of devices in a short period of time.

[Missed pitches to solve problems]

In order to achieve the above object, in the optical waveguide element of the present invention, an optical waveguide is formed on a substrate that is in close contact with a fiber array, and a filter that reflects or transmits light of a predetermined wavelength is arranged at a predetermined position of the optical waveguide. In the provided optical waveguide type device, the filter is disposed at the cut portion of the substrate.

Furthermore, in the method for manufacturing an optical waveguide element according to the present invention, the substrate is cut at a predetermined location so as to intersect with the optical waveguide, and then the cut surface is polished, and the cut portion is removed while the filter is disposed on the polished surface. In addition to recombining 1. A fiber array is brought into close contact with the substrate.

Furthermore, in order to simultaneously manufacture a large number of devices in a short period of time,
In another manufacturing method according to the present invention, a substrate on which a plurality of sets of optical waveguides are formed is cut at a predetermined location so as to intersect the optical waveguides, and then the cut surface is polished, and a filter is disposed on the polished surface. At the same time, the cut portions are recombined while the fiber array is still in place, and a fiber array having a plurality of sets of optical fibers is brought into close contact with the substrate, and then it is cut and separated into individual elements.

(Function) In the present invention, since the substrates on which the optical waveguides are formed are once cut and separated from each other, the filters can be disposed across the optical waveguides by placing the filters on the cut portions and then recombining them. be done.

(Embodiment) An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to Figs. 1 to 7. As shown in Fig. 1, the substrate (1) has three waves (λ3, A plurality of sets of optical waveguides (2) with wavelengths λ2, λ, There is a flame deposition method that is applied to the surface of the electrical equipment board (1).

In this embodiment, the substrate (1) is a glass plate. Each set (three sets are shown in FIG. 1) of the optical waveguides (2) is arranged parallel to each other, and the substrate (1)
) is arranged so that when it is cut at the cutting parts (21) and (22) shown by dotted lines, the same branch part can be cut.

The cut portions (21) and (22) intersect the optical waveguide (2), and are at the same position and inclination as the grooves (16) and (17) in FIG. 8. Also, this cutting part (21)
, (22) and both end surfaces (23), (24) are parallel to each other.

Toy glass (26), which has almost the same planar shape and the same material as this substrate (1), is fused to the upper surface (25) of the substrate (1) having the above structure, and then this integrated glass (26) is fused. 26) and the substrate (1) at the cutting parts (21) and (22).
). FIG. 2 shows the surface of the cut section (21). Next, as shown in FIG.
) and the substrate (1) are stacked on top of each other (without bonding) and the cut surfaces are polished. The above Yatoi glass (26) is attached to the substrate (1
) The reason why the optical waveguide (2) is fused in advance is to prevent the optical waveguide (2) from being destroyed during the cutting and polishing described above and to strengthen it.

Next, on the polished surface shown in FIG. 2, the part of the second waveguide section (28) where no filter is provided is masked, and the part of the first waveguide section corresponding to the branch section (11) in FIG. 8 is masked. (27) is provided with a wavelength selective filter that reflects or transmits light of a predetermined wavelength by vapor deposition. This filter is a multilayer filter that corresponds to the filter (12) in FIG. 8 and has the property of reflecting only the light of wavelength λ1 and transmitting the light of wavelengths λ2 and λ. On the other hand, in the cutting section (22), the third waveguide section (29) has a filter (
14) A multilayer filter that reflects only the light of wavelength λ2 and transmits the light of wavelength λ3 is deposited.

Next, as shown in FIG. 4, the cut portion (
21) and (22) are recombined to form each waveguide section (27) to (
29) and the end surface (23) of the board (1).
includes a fiber array (3) comprising optical fibers (30).
1) are brought into close contact with each other, and an optical fiber (32) is attached to the end face (24).
) are tightly fixed together.

A plurality of sets of optical fibers (30L (32)) are regularly provided in the fiber arrays (31) and (33), respectively, and can be connected to the optical waveguide (2) of the substrate (1). Thereafter, by cutting and separating along the chain line (34) in FIG. 4, individual optical waveguide type demultiplexers (35) as shown in FIG. 5 can be obtained.

Therefore, in this embodiment, the cutting portion (21), (
22), and fiber arrays (31), (33)
When joining, if one set is aligned, the other sets will also be aligned, improving work efficiency. Further, in this embodiment, since glass is not used in the filter section, the loss of light can be reduced.

Figure 6 shows the duplexer (
35), and Figure 7 is a perspective view of Yatoigarasu (26).
It is a perspective view when it is attached. The turnout shown in FIGS. 1 to 5 has a parallelogram shape, but FIGS. 6 and 7 show a rectangular one.

By the way, in the above embodiment, a case was shown in which a filter was deposited on the polished surfaces of the cut parts (21) and (22), but instead of filter deposition, a thin piece of glass on which a filter was previously deposited was attached to the polished surface. You can.

Moreover, if interference filters are also provided in the fiber arrays (31) and (33), the extinction ratio can be increased.

In addition to the above-mentioned branching device, the optical waveguide type device may be other devices such as a combiner, a splitter, a multiplexer, a star coupler, or the like.

〔Effect of the invention〕

Since the present invention is configured as described above, it produces the effects described below.

In the optical waveguide element and the manufacturing method thereof according to claims 1 and 2, there is no need to fit a thin filter into a narrow groove during manufacturing, which facilitates manufacturing work.

In addition to the above-mentioned effects, the method for manufacturing an optical waveguide device according to the third aspect allows a large number of devices to be simultaneously manufactured in a short period of time.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 to 7 are diagrams showing one embodiment of the present invention, in which FIG. 1 is a plan view of a substrate of an optical waveguide element, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing II in FIG.
3 is a sectional view showing a state where the substrate shown in FIG. 2 and Yatoi glass are stacked together, and FIG. 4 is a plan view showing the substrate and fiber array in close contact with each other. , Fig. 5 is a plan view of the splitter, Fig. 6 is a perspective view showing the internal structure of the splitter when the Yatoi glass is removed, and Fig. 7 is a plan view of the splitter.
The figure is a perspective view of the Yatoi glass installed, and FIG. 8 is a plan view of a conventional duplexer substrate. (1)... Substrate, (2)... Optical waveguide, (21), (22)... Cutting section, (30), (32)... Optical fiber, (31), (3
3)...Fiber array, (35)...Optical waveguide element (brancher). Note that the same reference numerals in each figure indicate the same or corresponding parts.

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) In an optical waveguide type element in which an optical waveguide is formed on a substrate that is in close contact with a fiber array, and a filter that reflects or transmits light of a predetermined wavelength is disposed at a predetermined position of the optical waveguide, the filter is placed on the substrate. An optical waveguide type element, characterized in that it is disposed in a cut section of. (2) After cutting the substrate at a predetermined location so as to cross the optical waveguide, polish this cut surface, recombine the cut portion with the filter placed on the polished surface, and attach the fiber array closely to the substrate. 2. The method of manufacturing an optical waveguide element according to claim 1, further comprising the step of: (3) The substrate on which multiple sets of optical waveguides are formed is cut at a predetermined location so as to intersect the optical waveguides, the cut surface is polished, and the cut section is re-grinded with the filter placed on the polished surface. 2. The method of manufacturing an optical waveguide type device according to claim 1, wherein the fiber array having a plurality of sets of optical fibers is brought into close contact with the substrate, and is then cut and separated into individual devices.