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Diode lasers and integrated optical modulators are key high-leverage components in advanced analog and digital electronic systems which rely on fiber optics to enhance performance. Today, applications ranging from telecommunications to CATV to gyroscopes are key beneficiaries of the high data rates and bandwidths made possible by these photonic devices. Pigtailing, the attachment of optical fibers to optoelectronic devices, is often the single most expensive process step in the manufacture of the entire device, and consequently the cost driver. To allow these devices to penetrate information-transfer applications requiring high component volume and low cost, significant reductions in pigtailing costs are necessary.
At the MIT Manufacturing Institute we are developing an automated fiber optic pigtailing system that will reduce pigtailing time and cost by an order of magnitude, while at the same time enhance device performance as well.
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