METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ALIGNING OPTICAL WAVEGUIDE ARRAYS

摘要

A method and apparatus for providing an improved coupling between waveguides of an integrated optical waveguide circuit component (20) and waveguides of an optical fiber array (22). The circuit component (20) and optical fiber array (22) are aligned and adjusted relative to each other while sensing the total optical power outputted from all of the optical fibers of the array (24). An integrating sphere (44) is utilized to sum the individual optical power outputs of all of the optical fibers and an autoalignment system (52) is used to adjust the relevant position of the component (20) and the fiber array (22) to maximize the total optical power outputted from the fibers into the integrating sphere (44).