Short Courses

Integrated optical modules combine advanced semiconductor technologies, optical and electronic chips, motherboards, micro-optics and heat-management to meet demanding  sub-systems specifications. The assembly, packaging and testing of such modules requires increasingly sophisticated methods to ensure product meets specification. This short course will provide an insight into the packaging and testing specific to such integrated optical modules.

Integrated circuits will be considered for a range of platform technologies by using the building block approach for open access generic foundries. A particular focus will be placed on scalability, addressing optical, electrical, mechanical, and thermal module connections. In an optimized design, these aspects become intricately interdependent, impacting chip layout, assembly methods and test protocols.

Packaging methods include the attachment of fiber- and micro-optics, mechanical positioning, wire and die bonding, assembly to motherboards, the insertion into housings, encapsulation and sealing. Techniques from hand-crafted assembly through to increasingly automated process flows will be reviewed. The course will provide an insight into the methods and interdependencies.

Test methods are instrumental in both qualifying modules and centering processes to enhance yield and performance. Methods for both custom product development and also generic foundries methodologies will be compared and contrasted. A structured separation of wafer validation, assembly and product qualification will be presented, ensuring relevance to a broad range of application specific PIC-enabled products.

This course will enable you to:

• Identify the distinctive features of packaging and testing for optical integrated modules when compared with discrete optical products and integrated electrical systems.

• Identify the different stages of testing, including the building block methodology used in open-access foundry services.

• Determine the origin of impairments using common measurement methods and describe how test methods can be used to push the yield-performance envelope

• Recognize common assembly techniques and their impact on chip and multi-chip-module layout and test requirements.

• Determine the motivations for using package and assembly techniques from gold box to glob-top, hermetic to non-hermetic, cooled to uncooled.

Course participants will likely already be engaged in either optoelectronic product development, optical systems engineering or photonics research. The course should be of relevance to both systems integrators who are considering the deployment of integrated optical modules and technologists developing integrated optical circuits who are keen to improve their understanding of product specification and evaluation.

A Bachelor or Master level physics or engineering education would provide a solid basis for course participation and a background in semiconductor electronics, optoelectronics and optics will be advantageous. This is the first edition of this highly interdisciplinary course.

Dr. Peter O’Brien obtained his PhD in Physics from University College Cork in 1999. He has a Masters in Electronic Engineering and Degree in Physics from Trinity College Dublin. He was a postdoctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology and research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena (Micro Devices Laboratory) where he worked on the development of millimetre wave devices for remote sensing applications. Dr O’Brien co-founded one (Biosensia) and founded a second company (Epi-Light). His second company, Epi-Light limited, developed speciality photonic systems for medical device and pharmaceutical applications. He successfully sold the company in 2009 and returned to the Tyndall National Institute to establish a research activity in advanced photonic packaging. Dr O’Brien is now head of the Photonics Packaging Group and is involved in a wide range of both academic and industry research projects, across the telecoms and medical device sectors. Dr. O’Brien is also deputy director of the Science Foundation Ireland, Irish Photonic Integration Centre.

Yoichi Taira received his B.S. degree from Kyoto University and Ph.D. degree from University of Tokyo, both in Physics. From 1983 to1988, he was an Associate Professor with the Institute for Laser Science, University Electro-Communication, Tokyo.  From 1988 to 2015, he was a Research Staff with IBM Research mostly in Tokyo. From 1989 to 1990, he was with IBM T.J. Watson Research Center.  In 1998, he became an IBM Senior Technical Staff Member.  Since 2015, he has been a Visiting Professor with Keio University. He is also involved in photonic packaging at IBM TJ Watson Research Center. He has been involved in various science and technology areas including technology research on various aspect of lasers including femtosecond laser technology, nonlinear optics, high power laser and UV lasers; VLSI design of memory and CPU; flat panel display technology including liquid crystal and organic light emitting materials; chip packaging including flip chip packaging, underfilling, chip cooling and chip stacking; high performance computer architecture including optical interconnects; nanometer precision fine molding technology, silicon photonic chip packaging and optically transparent adhesives  He is the author of 5 books, more than 160 articles, and more than 60 inventions.