Showcasing the world's fastest photonics alignment system for SiPh chips on Photonics West

With its proprietary fast multi-channel photon alignment algorithm and professional high-precision machinery, PI helps customers improve production efficiency to participate in the rapidly growing silicon photonics market. Over the past decade, PI has been continuously expanding its range of automatic photon alignment engines and will launch new systems at both ends of the spectrum in this year's event. A new modular entry-level system based on mechanical platforms will be demonstrated, but with high-performance controllers and high-speed air bearing systems for testing and assembly applications, which require maximum throughput, zero wear, and maintenance.

At present, the global demand for SiPh components is rapidly increasing, and leading market research companies unanimously predict that by 2030, the SiPh component market will double to around $10 billion. Therefore, productivity, output, and manufacturing costs are receiving increasing attention. One of the main cost drivers is the precise alignment of photonic components between optical fibers and chips. This task plays a crucial role in quality control related to production and assembly of fiber optic coupling. According to the complexity of the final product, alignment must be repeated up to twenty times during the manufacturing process.

The time required for this is crucial for the throughput and cost of SiPh production, and the seconds saved per alignment during production operations may be worth millions of dollars. By leveraging the proprietary algorithms and mechanisms of PI, calibration time can be reduced by up to 99% compared to traditional methods.

In addition to well-known solutions such as the F-712 alignment series, a new F-142/F-143 alignment system based on air bearings and an entry-level F-836 system are now available.

In addition to the photonics alignment engine, PI will also showcase wafer platforms for the semiconductor industry, actuators for quantum computing optical paths, fast focusing platforms for laser applications, nanopositioning and nanofocusing devices for super-resolution microscopes, and a novel method based on piezoelectric ceramics to improve the throughput of laser micro hole drilling, And a fast steering mirror for free space optical laser communication on Earth and LEO satellites.

The modular architecture of PI supports mixing motion and drive types in a system, resulting in optimal configuration of each axis in terms of cost and performance. Control is achieved through the EtherCAT based scalable controller of ACS under PI Group.

Source: Laser Net