Patent ID: 9377587
Filing Date: 2016-06-28
CPC Classification: G02B

Claim Text:
1. An assembly comprising: a plurality of optical fiber waveguides each having a waveguide core; a photonic integrated circuit that includes a plurality of in-plane waveguide structures corresponding to said plurality of optical fiber waveguides; and a substrate that is bonded to said photonic integrated circuit, wherein said substrate includes a plurality of grooves that support said plurality of optical fiber waveguides; wherein portions of said plurality of optical fiber waveguides that are supported by said grooves of said substrate define a corresponding plurality of flat surfaces that are spaced radially from the waveguide cores of said plurality of optical fiber waveguides and that extend parallel to the waveguide cores along the lengthwise dimension of the optical fiber waveguides; and wherein said photonic integrated circuit includes a plurality of passive waveguide structures that correspond to both said plurality of in-plane waveguide structures of said photonic integrated circuit and said plurality of optical fiber waveguides, each passive waveguide structure including a first coupling section that interfaces to the flat surface of the corresponding optical fiber waveguide and a second coupling section that interfaces to the corresponding in-plane waveguide structure of said photonic integrated circuit, wherein said first coupling section is configured to provide for evanescent coupling of optical signals into or from the corresponding optical fiber waveguide, and the second coupling section is configured to provide for adiabatic spot-size conversion of optical signals between the first coupling section and the corresponding in-plane waveguide structure of said photonic integrated circuit.