MICROLENS ARRAY COUPLING SYSTEM, AND MICROLENS ARRAY AND ITS MANUFACTURING METHOD

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To tightly fix a microlens array to an end surface of an optical fiber lens array without contaminating any lens surface, etc.;SOLUTION: On an end surface of the optical fiber array 10 where end parts of optical fibers F₁₁ to F₄₁ are exposed along an edge part. On one main surface of the microlens array 20 having lenses L₁₁ to L₄₁ projecting light beams from the optical fibers F₁₁ to F₄₁, a step part 24 is provided along the edge part. The step parts 14 and 24 both have an about 0.1 mm depth and also have solder base layers 18 and 28 formed across contact layers 16 and 26 respectively. While one main surface of the array 20 is brought into contact with the end surface of the array 10 so that the end parts of the optical fibers F₁₁ to F₄₁ and the lenses L₁₁ to L₄₁ face each other and the step parts 14 and 24 are made mutually successive, the solder base layers 18 and 28 are connected by a solder layer 30 to fix the array 20 to the end surface of the array 10.;COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO