During Photonics West, high-precision additive manufacturing firm Nanoscribe (booth 3114) has announced a partnership with the Dutch photonics packaging foundry PHIX.
The firms are collaborating to provide on-fibre printing services to the photonic packaging industry.
Nanoscribe’s new high-performance 3D microlens printing technology, with nano-precision alignment capabilities, will be used by PHIX in its manufacturing services of standard lensed fibre arrays.
This will allow PHIX to expand its service portfolio to contain the manufacturing of free space microoptical coupling components printed directly on fibre arrays and photonic integrated circuits – extending the firm’s capability for bringing hybrid integration into mass production.
Both partners take a multidisciplinary approach to the development of photonic packaging solutions: from simulation to design and assembly.
Nanoscribe’s Quantum X align, which is making its debut at Photonics West this week, automatically aligns and prints advanced optical lenses on fibre arrays, facilitating optimised optical coupling on PIC platforms. In addition, this is a reliable solution for the passive alignment of chip modules.
Learn about Nanoscribe’s new Quantum X align system at booth 3114 (Image: Nanoscribe)
PHIX is thus adding a state-of-the-art manufacturing technology to provide solutions for hybrid integration of chip-to-chip and fibre-to-chip modules to its portfolio of assembly services for all major PIC platforms.
‘We are confident in Nanoscribe’s new, aligned 3D printing technology for producing lensed fibre arrays and lensed chips with virtually limitless optical designs,’ stated Joost van Kerkhof, COO of PHIX. ‘This will enable us to further advance integrated photonics packaging.’
‘PHIX’s extensive expertise in assembly and packaging of photonic integrated circuits is a compelling fit for Nanoscribe to jointly validate and further advance our technology in an industrial environment,’ said Jörg Smolenski, business developer at Nanoscribe. ‘We are excited to take manufacturing quality to the next level with our new approach of aligned high-precision 3D printing for manufacturing standard LFAs.’
The PHIX service is designed as a gateway to standard lensed fiber array manufacturing, facilitating entry into such markets. It is also promising for low-volume applications and markets with industry-quality components. With Nanoscribe’s technology, PHIX can offer 3D-printed collimation, focusing and steering lenses on 4-32 channel fibre arrays. This is complimentary to PHIX’s offering of spot size converters and can cover wavelengths from 450 to 1,550nm and beyond.
‘This marks an important milestone for the photonic packaging industry,’ the two firms agreed in their announcement of the new collaboration.
