SPIE Photonics West Exhibition

San Francisco / January 28, 2025 - January 30, 2025

Photonics West

The Photonics West is the most influential conference for biophotonics and biomedical optics, high-power laser manufacturing, optoelectronics, microfabrication, and green photonics. The conference will be taking place online from 28 – 30 January 2025.

Fraunhofer IZM topics:

Thin glass-based Electrical-optical-circuit-board (EOCB) and optical subassemblies for high bandwidth applications
3D integration, sub-micron automated assembly, and reliable packaging
Photonic integration platforms (optical substrates, components and interconnects)
High bandwidth optical fiber based modules
Photonic design for packaging
Low cost approaches for high volume applications

Glass interposer technology for high-frequency applications

As part of the publicly funded (BMBF) joint project GlaRA, radar sensors were developed to be especially suitable for smart industry and process measuring applications due to their excellent distance resolution, accuracy, beam focusing capabilities, and overall tiny dimensions. This feat was made possible with a robust glass interposer technology for broadband mmwave modules for frequencies above 100 GHz, which was used to construct and characterize system-in-package (SiP) designs. Fraunhofer IZM has developed an industry-ready process for glass via metallization with high aspect ratios. A wafer bonding process (for wafers with max. 300 mm diameter) hermetically packages the assembled components by connecting two glass wafers, fitted with the required vias and cavities.

Hybrid integrated glass benches for photonics

Optical systems can be built with combined electro-optical components and electronic controls using laser-structured and thin-film metallized glass benches. Thin glass is also used in custom-shaped fittings to enable their automated assembly with industrial alignment systems on six axes, with less than one-micrometer accuracy. This allows high-quality optical beams to be shaped and coupled to perform optical measuring tasks. With the concept capable of working with largeformat panels, it can scale perfectly in terms of the size and number of systems and individual thin-glass packages produced.

Panel level processed glass interposers or inlays for lamination into circuit boards

Fraunhofer IZM is able to integrate single-mode waveguides in large-sized commercial glass boards using an ion-exchange technique. That technique itself is well known, but we are the only ones with a process to fabricate commercial thin glass up to sizes of 440 mm x 330 mm. This is important to enable large-size circuit boards, or indeed greater numbers of small glass plates in one go, which gets the unit costs down.

Optical fiber processing

Optical fibers with different geometries and spectral operation from UV to MIR can be processed to create radial-firing fibers, fused couplers, lensed fibers, bundles, fiber caps, 3D resonators, bended fibers, connections of fiber-to-chip & fiber-to-GRIN lens, etc.

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EOCB - Electro-optical circuit board

Electro-optical printed circuit board have embedded thin layers of glass with integrated optical waveguide arrays. Low loss optical single and multi mode waveguides are manufactured by an ion exchange technology using commercial available thin glass sheets.

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Optical Sensors

At Fraunhofer, small optical sensors based on optical fibers and optical microresonators are explored in fields of aerospace, gas detection and medical diagnostics.

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High-Precision Assembly of Micro-Optical Components

Automated assembly and alignment of micro-optical benches and assembly platforms; laser beam forming.

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Events

San Francisco / January 28, 2025 - January 30, 2025

Photonics West

Fraunhofer IZM topics:

Glass interposer technology for high-frequency applications

Hybrid integrated glass benches for photonics

Panel level processed glass interposers or inlays for lamination into circuit boards

Optical fiber processing

EOCB - Electro-optical circuit board

Optical Sensors

High-Precision Assembly of Micro-Optical Components

Contact Press / Media

Georg Weigelt