Today, the most efficient ways of communication for PICs with the “outside world” require UHNA or lensed fibers, which are non-standard, expensive and hard-to-handle. Moreover, they are very sensitive to alignment due to the small mode field diameter. Altogether, this leads to expensive and complicated packing procedures, hardly compatible with large-volumes.

To overcome this obstacle, LIGENTEC developed and patented a brand new “Ex-Spot” module – an optical I/O interface with large mode field diameter matching the one of SMF-28 fiber. It allows unprecedented coupling efficiency (<1dB) for thick film PICs with industry standard optical fibers and significantly decreases the price and efforts for packaging procedures.

https://www.ligentec.com/ligentec-an-technology/