Optical wire bond apparatus and methods employing laser-written waveguides

摘要

An optical wire bond apparatus for optically connecting an optical-electrical integrated circuit (OE-IC) to an optical-electrical printed circuit board (OE-PCB) is formed by laser writing cores in a flexible glass support member to define an array of optical waveguides. The support member has a bend section and the waveguides reside close to either a top or bottom surface of the support member at the bend section. The cores have a front-end portion that can be laser written after the front end of the support member is coarse-aligned to optical waveguide structures in the OE-PCB to obtain fine alignment. The support members can be formed from flexible glass sheets or by drawing a glass preform. A photonic assembly that includes the OE-IC and the OE-PCB optically connected using the optical wire bond apparatus is also disclosed.