MANUAL OPTICAL FIBER ALIGNING DEVICE AND METHOD THEREFOR

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a manual optical fiber aligning device which eliminates the need for the exact position selection of an optical fiber by manually aligning the optical fiber to the input and output optical waveguides of an integrated optical element and lessening the dependence of coupling loss on horizontal displacement. SOLUTION: The optical waveguide 240 forms the optical waveguide core 200 shorter than the longitudinal length of an optical plane substrate 230 in the longitudinal direction of the optical plane substrate 230 and is superposed on the plane substrate 230. The optical waveguide 240 forms an optical waveguide layer by application of silica, etc., on the silicon plane substrate 230. An optical fiber packaging part 210 is formed by removing the part to be packaged of the optical fiber 250 by a prescribed length in the longitudinal direction of the plane substrate 230 in such a manner that the centers of the optical waveguide core 200 and the optical fiber core 252 are aligned to the optical waveguide superposed on the plane substrate 230. A groove 220 is filled with a material which is increased in its refractive index by the irradiation with UV rays to the extent of not substantially producing a difference from the refractive index of the optical fiber core 252 formed between the optical fiber packaging part 210 and the optical waveguide core 200.