Patent ID: 7548682

Claim:
A fiber-microlens positioning array comprising; A) a plurality of optical fibers at least partially contained in a smaller plurality of fiber optic ribbons, B) a mounting plate adapted to permit the passage through the mounting plate of said optical fibers extending from said fiber optic ribbons, C) a positioning plate comprised of a single silicon plate mounted on said mounting plate comprising a two dimensional array of lithographically-defined V-grooves for alignment of said plurality of optical fibers extending from said fiber optic ribbons to provide an array of optical fiber beam exit and/or entrance apertures, wherein each of said V-grooves are positioned in said single plate both horizontally and vertically with sub-micron accuracy, and wherein said plurality of optical fibers extending from said plurality of fiber optic ribbons are fixedly positioned in the V-grooves and D) a microlens array comprised of a plurality of microlenses positioned to align a microlens with each optical fiber beam exit and/or entrance aperture in said array of optical fiber beam exit and/or entrance apertures.