Patent ID: 7876984

Claim:
A method of fabricating an optical module comprising planar optical waveguide array, the method comprising the steps of: preparing an optical waveguide array formed on a flexible substrate, the optical waveguide array including a first optical waveguide channel group including at least two optical waveguide channels each having an optical wiring core which is enclosed in a cladding layer and which is formed of a material with a refractive index higher than that of the cladding layer and a second optical waveguide channel group including a pair of optical waveguide channels juxtaposed to the juxtaposed outermost optical waveguide channels on both sides of the first optical waveguide channel group, respectively, the flexible substrate being of a material which allows the first optical waveguide channel group and the second optical waveguide channel group to be arbitrarily bent; and preparing an optical element array formed on an optical module substrate, the optical element array including a first optical element array including at least two juxtaposed optical elements and a second optical element array including a pair of optical elements juxtaposed to the outermost optical elements on both sides of the first optical element array, respectively; wherein each of the optical waveguide channels included in the second optical waveguide channel group has a first mirror structure which redirects light coming through the optical waveguide channel into a direction perpendicular to the optical waveguide channel; and wherein, with the first optical element array and the second optical element array driven by a bias applied thereto, the optical waveguide array is brought near the optical element array, optical axes of the second optical waveguide channel group and the second optical element array are aligned while monitoring an output signal outputted from the second optical element array and redirected by the first mirror structure or an output signal redirected by the first mirror structure and outputted from the second optical waveguide channel group, and the optical waveguide array is fixed to the optical module substrate in such a position that the output signal being monitored has a desired value.