Patent ID: 7190865

Claim:
A method of establishing optical communication, said method comprising the steps of: providing an integrated optical waveguide circuit component having, an optical processing area, N input and output waveguide ports and at least one waveguide structure, the at least one waveguide structure going around the optical processing area; providing an optical fiber array having an array of M optical fibers, said optical fibers each having a coupling end for optical coupling to at least a portion of the input and output waveguides of said integrated optical waveguide circuit component, wherein at least a portion of said optical fibers terminate with an individual optical fiber terminal end; positioning said optical fiber array adjacent to said integrated optical waveguide circuit component so that a plurality of photons emitted from the coupling end of at least one of the optical fibers are coupled into the at least one waveguide structure of said integrated optical waveguide circuit component and coupled back into the coupling end of at least one of the optical fibers of the optical fiber array adjacent to said integrated optical waveguide circuit component; adjusting the relevant position of said optical fiber array to said integrated optical waveguide circuit component so that a sensed value representative of the total optical power of the photons coupled back into the coupling end of the at least one optical fiber is maximized; and securing said position of said optical fiber array to said integrated optical waveguide circuit component.