Apparatus for packaging a fiber optic device along with electronic and opto-electronic components upon a printed circuit board. Bend members having arcuate shaped guide surfaces for directing fibers between various components are strategically mounted upon the top surface of the board. Passive fiber optic components are also mounted upon support means between bend members so that the fibers entering and exiting the passive component run tangent to the bend radius of the bend members. The radius of curvature of the bend members is within the bend tolerance of the fibers used in the device. The bend members and support members are formed of a material having a thermal coefficient of expansion that is about equal to that of the board material whereby thermally induced stresses on the board mounted components are minimized.
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0. 56. Apparatus for mounting a fiber optic circuit that includes
a substrate, bend members each containing an arcuate guide surface having a predetermined radius of curvature that is within the bend tolerance of optical fibers used in the optic circuit, wherein said arcuate shaped guide surfaces of said bend members subtend an arc of 90°C or less, wherein said bend members are attached to said substrate, support members attached to said substrate for mounting passive optical circuit components between two spaced apart bend members, and at least one mandrel attached to the substrate about which spliced sections of the fiber optic circuit are wound.
0. 20. An opto-electronic device comprising:
a substrate containing both electrical and optical circuitry on the upper surface of the substrate; an optical device attached to the upper surface of said substrate; a plurality of optical fibers connected to said optical device; a plurality of fiber guides attached to the upper surface of said substrate and disposed to direct said plurality of optical fibers, said plurality of fiber guides each having at least one arcuate guide surface; a pair of spaced apart mandrels mounted upon the upper surface of said board about which spliced sections of said optical fibers are wound, each mandrel being formed by a plurality of circumferentially aligned fibers guides; and an electronic device attached to the upper surface of said substrate.
0. 43. Apparatus for mounting fiber optic circuits that includes
a substrate containing both electrical and optical circuitry on the upper surface of the substrate, bend members each containing an arcuate guide surface having a predetermined radius of curvature that is within the bend tolerance of optical fibers used in said optical circuitry, wherein said bend members are attached to the upper surface of said substrate, support members attached to the upper surface of said substrate for mounting optical circuit components between spaced apart bend members, and a pair of spaced apart mandrels mounted to the upper surface of said substrate about which spliced sections of said fiber optic circuitry are wound, each mandrel being formed by a plurality of circumferentially aligned bend members.
0. 58. Apparatus for mounting fiber optic circuitry and electrical circuitry that includes
a substrate having a flat upper surface containing fiber optic circuitry and electrical circuitry thereon, support members attached to the upper surface of said substrate for mounting optical components containing optical fibers for carrying optical signals into and out of said components, bend member attached to said substrate and containing arcuate guide surfaces for physically engaging the optical fibers and directing said optical fibers toward and away from said optical components, each guide surface having a radius of curvature that is within the bend tolerance of the optical fibers, and said bend members and said support members being formed of a material that has a thermal coefficient of expansion about equal to that of the optical fibers.
0. 51. Apparatus for mounting a fiber optic circuit and electrical circuitry that includes
a substrate, bend members each containing an arcuate guide surface having a predetermined radius of curvature that is within the bend tolerance of optical fibers used in the optic circuit, wherein said bend members are attached to said substrate, support members attached to the substrate for mounting passive optical circuit components between two spaced apart bend members, wherein said optical circuit includes an optical coupler connecting active optical circuit components that are attached to said fiber optic circuit and said electrical circuitry including an electrical header mounted on said substrate electrically connected to the active optical circuit component, and a pump laser that is coupled to the fiber optic circuit and the electrical header.
17. Apparatus for mounting fiber optic circuitry upon a printed circuit board that includes
a printed circuit board having a flat planar upper surface containing electrical circuitry thereon, support members attached to the upper surface of the circuit board for mounting optical components containing optical fibers for carrying optical signals into and out of said components, bend members mounted upon the upper surface of said board containing arcuate guide surfaces for physically engaging the optical fibers on the inside of each bend and directing said optical fibers toward and away from said optical components, each guide surface having a radius of curvature that is within the bend tolerance of the optical fibers, and said bend members and said support members being formed of a material that has a thermal coefficient of expansion about equal to that of the optical fibers.
15. Apparatus for mounting a fiber optic circuit upon a printed circuit board that includes
a printed circuit board, bend members each containing an arcuate guide surface having a predetermined radius of curvature that is within the bend tolerance of optical fibers used in the optic circuit, wherein said arcuate shaped guide surfaces of said bend members subtend an arc of 90°C or less, mounting means for selectively attaching the bend members at predetermined spaced apart locations on the upper surface of the board. support members attached to the upper surface of said board for mounting passive optical circuit components between two spaced apart bend members, said bend members and said support members being formed of a material that has a thermal coefficient of expansion that is about equal to that of said board, and a pair of spaced apart mandrels mounted upon said board about which spliced sections of the fiber optic circuit are wound, each mandrel being formed by a plurality of circumferentially aligned bend members.
1. Apparatus for mounting fiber optic circuits upon a printed circuit board that includes
a printed circuit board containing both electrical and optical circuitry on the upper surfaces of said board, bend members each containing an arcuate guide surface having a predetermined radius of curvature that is within the bend tolerance of optical fibers used in said optical circuitry, mounting means for selectively attaching said bend members at predetermined spaced apart locations on the upper surface of the board, support members attached to the upper surface of said board for mounting optical circuit components between spaced apart bend members, a pair of spaced apart mandrels mounted upon the upper surface of said board about which spliced sections of said fiber optic circuitry are wound, each mandrel being formed by a plurality of circumferentially aligned bend members, said bend members and said support members being formed of a material that has a thermal coefficient of expansion that is about equal to that of said optical fibers.
9. Apparatus for mounting a fiber optic circuit upon a printed circuit board that includes
a printed circuit board, bend members each containing an arcuate guide surface having a predetermined radius of curvature that is within the bend tolerance of optical fibers used in the optic circuit, mounting means for selectively attaching the bend members at predetermined spaced apart locations on the upper surface of the board; support members attached to the upper surface of said board for mounting passive optical circuit components between two spaced apart bend members, said bend members and said support members being formed of a material that has a thermal coefficient of expansion that is about equal to that of said board, wherein said optical circuits include coupler means for optically connecting active optical circuit components that are mounted on said board to said fiber optic circuit and run means on said board for electrically connecting the active component to an electrical header mounted on said board, and a pump laser that is coupled to the fiber optic circuit and the electrical header.
2. The apparatus of
3. The apparatus of
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6. The apparatus of
7. The apparatus of
8. The apparatus of
10. The apparatus of
11. The apparatus of
12. The apparatus of
13. The apparatus of
14. The apparatus of
16. The apparatus of
18. The apparatus of
19. The apparatus of
0. 21. The opto-electronic device of
an input port; an output port; and a plurality of optical components disposed between said input port and said output port.
0. 22. The opto-electronic device of
a plurality of supports attached to the substrate for mounting the plurality of optical components thereto.
0. 23. The opto-electronic device of
0. 24. The opto-electronic device of
two mandrels disposed to serve as guides for winding about a portion of said plurality of optical fibers; each of said mandrels having an arcuate guide surface, attached to the substrate; a fiber gain coil; and two discs positioned with said fiber gain coil therebetween.
0. 25. The opto-electronic device of
0. 26. The opto-electronic device of
a linear fiber guide for directing at least two of said plurality of optical fibers to one of the at least one optical components.
0. 27. The opto-electronic device of
0. 28. The opto-electronic device of
0. 29. The opto-electronic device of
0. 30. The opto-electrical device of
at least one active optical component; and at least one passive optical component operatively connected to said at least one active optical component.
0. 31. The opto-electronic device of
an integrated guide-support attached to the substrate for mounting of one of the plurality of optical components, said integrated guide-support including a center portion disposed between two arcuate guide surfaces.
0. 32. The opto-electronic device of
two mandrels disposed to serve as guides for winding a portion of said plurality of optical fibers.
0. 33. The opto-electronic device of
0. 34. The opto-electronic device of
0. 35. The opto-electronic device of
a heat sink mounted to the second surface of the printed circuit board, wherein the optical device includes a pump laser, and the pump laser is thermally coupled to said heat sink.
0. 36. The opto-electronic device of
an optical gain block mounted to the first surface of said printed circuit board, wherein the printed circuit board defines an opening, the pump laser extending through said opening in the printed circuit board for engagement with said optical gain block, wherein the plurality of supports is mounted to the first surface of the printed circuit board.
0. 37. The opto-electronic device of
a stiffener attached to the printed circuit board.
0. 38. The opto-electronic device of
0. 39. The opto-electronic device of
a second substrate and a cover attached to said second substrate forming a housing, wherein the printed circuit board is enclosed within said housing and is mounted to said second substrate.
0. 40. The opto-electronic device of
an electrical connector connected to the electronic device; and a plurality of electrical leads connected to said electrical connector and the electronic device for transmitting electricity from said electrical connector to the electronic device.
0. 41. The opto-electronic device of
0. 42. The opto-electronic device of
0. 44. The apparatus of
0. 45. The apparatus of
0. 46. The apparatus of
0. 47. The apparatus of
0. 48. The apparatus of
0. 49. The apparatus of
0. 50. The apparatus of
0. 52. The apparatus of
0. 53. The apparatus of
0. 54. The apparatus of
0. 55. The apparatus of
0. 57. The apparatus of
0. 59. The apparatus of
0. 60. The apparatus of
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This invention relates to apparatus for packaging a wide variety of fiber optic circuit components upon a common support in association with electrical circuit components.
It is conventional to independently package the passive components of a fiber optic circuit on a passive platform. The platform is typically constructed from a single piece of metal. The fiber runs are machined in the platform along with seats for the passive components. In addition, the components on the passive platform are sensitive to damp heat and as a result, the entire unit must be hermetically sealed within a housing or the like. The bottom surface of the housing is equipped with a thermal patch which carries away excessive heat. Passive components housed in the passive platform unit may include, but are not limited to fiber coils, couplers, isolators, filters and fiber coils. The platform is expansion matched to the optical fiber of which these components are assembled.
The passive platform packaging technique, as evidenced by its widespread acceptance, works well in practice, however, it has certain disadvantages which the present invention overcomes. Separating the passive components of the fiber optic circuit from the active components and the electrical circuitry which supports the active components results in an inefficient utilization of space. Also, bringing light carrying fibers in and out of the hermetically sealed platform housing is difficult to achieve and is also expensive. Additional components are also mounted in the housing to monitor environmental conditions to insure that they are within acceptable limits.
Some electrical circuitry used in association with active fiber optic components should be ideally positioned as near as possible to the active component it services. For example, it is well known that a photodetecting monitor used in a fiber optic circuit will exhibit more effective and reliable operational results when mounted in close proximity with supporting circuitry. This type of close compatible mounting cannot be accomplished using a conventional passive platform arrangement.
A fixed passive platform mounted inside a hermetically sealed enclosure furthermore does not afford the flexibility needed to accommodate newly evolving and more innovative opto-electrical architecture. For example, the architecture of some optical devices require that a laser pump be mounted together with passive optical components which, in turn, calls for special considerations for handling waste heat.
Although some devices have been proposed in the literature for integrating optical circuitry and electrical circuitry, none of these devices provide a universal solution to the many problems related to integrating these two types of circuits.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to improve the packaging of fiber optic circuits.
It is a further object of the present invention to mount both the optical and electrical circuits of a fiber optic device on a common support.
It is a still further object of the present invention to place electrical components for servicing a fiber optic device as near as possible to certain optical components on a common circuit board for enhancing the operation of the device.
Yet a further object of the present invention is to improve the reliability of a photonic device by placing the active and passive components of the device upon a common printed circuit board.
Another object of the present invention is to provide improved packaging for fiber optic devices which saves space and allows for free intermixing of both active and passive fiber optic components upon a common printed circuit board.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide for greater flexibility in the packaging of new opto-electronic architectures.
For a better understanding of these and other objects of the present invention, reference will be made herein to the following detailed description of the invention which is to be read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
The present invention will be described with specific reference to a fiber gain block containing an erbium doped fiber coil. It should be evident from the description below, however, that the invention has broader applications and can be employed in conjunction with a wide variety of fiber optic devices utilizing both passive and active optical components. For purposes of this disclosure, passive components include such things as couplers, isolators, filters, gain coils and the like that are self contained and do not require an electrical input to control or support the operation thereof. Active components, on the other hand, include such things as lasers, pump lasers, tunable filters, photodiodes and the like that do require some type of electrical input to sustain operation of the component.
Referring initially to
The combined 1550 and 980 nm signals are delivered to a fiber coil which function to increase the amplitude of the 1550 nm signal. The coil is a passive device made up of a fiber coil that is doped with erbium. The fiber coil is of sufficient length so that the 980 nm signal from the pump laser is completely attenuated in the coil. The signal leaving the coil is a high gain signal at the original input frequency of 1550 nm which is widely used in optical communication systems.
The output of the gain coil is then passed through a second isolator 26 and out of the gain block through output terminal 27. An output photodetecting diode 28 is connected into the output fiber 17 via a third coupler 29 for monitoring the output of the device.
The present gain block contains six passive components, which are the three couplers, two isolators and a gain coil, and three active components which are the two photodetector diodes and the pump laser. As noted above, the active components of the system each require some type of electrical support to maintain operation. In the case of a photodetecting diode, it is desirable in most applications to place the electrical support circuitry as close as physically possible to the diode to insure efficient operation and reduce the effect on noise. As will become apparent from the disclosure below, by mounting both the active and the passive components of the gain block on a common printed circuit board, the electrical support circuitry for the photodetector diodes can easily be mounted immediately adjacent to the monitoring diodes on the board.
With further reference to
As is well known, this racetrack arrangement provides a means for accurately aligning and supporting spliced sections of fiber utilized in the gain block. In the present embodiment, each mandrel is established by circumferentially aligning a plurality of bend members at the opposite ends of the racetrack.
Each bend member contains a mounting flange 37 and a raised arcuate shaped guide element 38 that has a fiber contacting guide surface 40 about which optical fibers are trained. The radius of curvature of the guide surface is within the critical bend tolerance of the fibers utilized in the device whereby signal transmission will not be adversely affected nor the fibers physically damaged. The bend members are attached to the board by rivets or integrated snap fasteners 41 that are passed through the mounting flange of the bend member and the underlying board. Each of the guide surfaces of the present bend members transcend an arc of about 90°C, however, bend members transcending greater or lesser arcs can be similarly utilized without departing from the teachings of the present invention.
In the case of the present fiber racetrack, each opposed end mandrel is formed by three 90°C bend members with the mandrels being centered upon the longitudinal axis 43 of the racetrack. An arcuate shaped cover plate 45 is mounted on top of each mandrel and secured to the board by threaded fasteners 46--46. The diameter of each cover plate is greater than that of the underlying mandrel. The covers thus serve to prevent the fibers wound upon the mandrels from becoming dislodged.
With further reference to
As can be seen, the wound coil is not a structurally strong component. Special care is taken in the present invention to protect the coil in assembly. As illustrated in
Turning once again to
Each support member, in turn, is mounted between two spaced apart bend members 52--52. The opposed bend members are located so that the fiber guide surfaces of the members are both tangent with the center line of a component, mounted in the associated support member. Accordingly, the fiber sections entering and leaving the mounted components are directed by the bend members to other parts of the board without exceeding the bend tolerance of the fiber.
The two photodetector monitor diodes 15 and 28 are also mounted on the top surface of the board as illustrated in FIG. 1 and are electrically coupled to conductive runs 58--58 by leads 59--59. The runs on the board are brought out to a pin connector which is herein referred to as an electrical header 60. The header is mounted along one side margin of the board and is arranged to receive an electrical harness (not shown) that brings electrical power to the board and communicates with remote equipment associated with the various active components.
Also mounted upon the top of the board, in close proximity to each of the monitor diodes, is a single inline package (SIP) 62 containing electrical or opto-electrical elements for servicing adjacent monitors. The SIP units are similarly connected to the electrical header and the associated monitor by appropriate printed runs.
Turning now to
As is well known, the pump laser is typically seated upon a thermoelectric cooler which shunts heat away from the laser. In the present embodiment, the cooler presents a hot surface to the heat sink which, in turn, transfers the heat energy efficiently to ambient. Here again, leads 68--68 associated with the pump laser are connected to conductive pads 69 on the board which, in turn, are brought out to the electrical header by suitable electrical runs.
Under certain conditions it may be necessary to mount the gain block within a protective housing. As shown in
Stiffeners 77--77 (
Although the bend members and the support members were described above as being independent elements the two can be combined as illustrated in
The bend and support members are preferably molded from a plastic material that has about the same coefficient of thermal expansion as the board. The thermal coefficient of expansion of these components are further matched as closely as possible to that of the optical fiber to minimize the effects of thermal stress. By the same token, the stiffeners that are mounted under the board can also be closely expansion matched with the board to further reduce the effects of both mechanical and thermal stress. This, coupled with the heat sink associated with the pump laser further minimizes the effects of thermal changes or the gain block.
While this invention has been explained with reference to the structure disclosed herein, it is not confined to the details set forth and this invention is intended to cover any modifications and changes as may come within the scope of the following claims:
Walker, Robert J., DeMeritt, Jeffery A., Schmidt, Gerald B., Jakobson, Paul A.
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