Optical Coupling Connector with Integrated Waveguide Amplification
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing optical coupling connectors face challenges in efficiently connecting optical fiber arrays to optoelectronics chips due to mismatched pitches and suffer from excessive signal light loss, with current solutions like EDFA and SOA posing manufacturing and integration difficulties.
Innovation Solution
An optical coupling connector system with upper-layer and lower-layer waveguides, where each lower-layer waveguide includes a coupling, pitch matching, and signal light amplification portion, utilizing a pump light source to amplify signal light and reduce transmission loss by matching refractive indices and using gain materials like ytterbium or erbium.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If an optical coupling connector is used to connect optical fiber array to optoelectronics chip, then signal light transmission is enabled, but signal light loss occurs due to absorption and scattering
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces waveguides as intermediary components between the optical fiber array and optoelectronics chip. The waveguides include a core layer and covering layer with gain material that acts as a mediator to transfer and amplify signal light, reducing transmission losses through the coupling connector.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the physical parameters of the waveguide structure by controlling the refractive index of the core layer to be higher than the covering layer, and by doping gain material (erbium/ytterbium) into the waveguides. This enables optical amplification to compensate for signal light loss.
2Loss of energy
If EDFAs are used to amplify signal light, then signal light loss is compensated, but coupling difficulty increases due to large volume and independent amplification requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple amplification functions into a single integrated waveguide structure. Instead of using separate EDFAs for each optical fiber, the waveguides provide integrated amplification through gain material doping, significantly reducing device complexity and coupling difficulty.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a simplified copy of the amplification function by doping gain material directly into the waveguide structure, replicating the EDFA amplification capability in a much more compact and integrable form factor that doesn't require independent amplification for each channel.
3Loss of energy
If SOA is integrated into optoelectronics chip, then signal light amplification is achieved, but manufacturing complexity increases due to thermal control and CMOS incompatibility
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the material composition parameters of the waveguide by doping gain material (erbium/ytterbium) into the core layer, enabling amplification functionality that is compatible with existing manufacturing processes, unlike SOA which requires incompatible preparation techniques.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The system effectively reduces coupling and transmission losses, simplifies the preparation technique, and enables efficient amplification of multiple signal channels, addressing the limitations of existing solutions while ensuring compatibility with both optical fiber arrays and optoelectronics chips.
Implementation Method 1
each lower-layer waveguide includes a first core layer and a first covering layer that covers the first core layer, where a material of the first covering layer includes a gain material, the gain material can transfer energy of the pump light to the signal light
Implementation Method 2
the gain material can transfer energy of the pump light to the signal light
Implementation Method 3
an optical coupling connector, configured to connect an optical fiber array and an optoelectronics chip, includes an upper-layer connector and a lower-layer connector
Data Source
Figure 1a
Figure 1b
Figure 1c
AI summary
An optical coupling connector, an optical coupling system, and a waveguide coupling method are provided. The optical coupling connector (20) is configured to connect an optical fiber array (10) and an optoelectronics chip (30), and includes an upper-layer connector (201) and a lower-layer connector (202). The upper-layer connector (201) includes N upper-layer waveguides (211, 212, ...), where N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2. The lower-layer connector (202) includes N lower-layer waveguides (221, 222, ...). The N lower-layer waveguides (221, 222, ...) and the N upper-layer waveguides (211, 212, ...) are coupled in a one-to-one correspondence. Each lower-layer waveguide includes a coupling waveguide portion, a pitch matching waveguide portion, and a signal light amplification waveguide portion. This type of optical coupling connector that can amplify signal light has a simple structure and a small size, uses a simple preparation technique, and can be widely applied to a coupled connection between the optical fiber array (10) and the optoelectronics chip (30).