Patent ID: 7379633

Claim:
A method for fabricating an interferometric fiber optic transceiver comprising: providing a silicon nitride coated silicon wafer having a wafer upper surface patterned with gold electrical circuit elements and an opposite wafer lower surface; depositing a first polymeric layer having an ordinary index of refraction no L and an extraordinary index of refraction ne L on said wafer upper surface; depositing a second polymeric layer having an ordinary index of refraction no C and an extraordinary index of refraction ne C on said first polymeric layer; masking and reactive ion etching the second polymeric layer to form at least one Y branch waveguide having a light source port, a detector port, and an output port; depositing a third polymeric layer having an ordinary index of refraction no U and an extraordinary index of refraction ne U on the etched second polymeric layer; masking and removing, by an inductively coupled plasma process, selected areas of the third polymeric layer, the second polymeric layer and the first polymeric layer to expose selected electrical circuit elements on said wafer upper surface to form at least one optical bench having a portion of said wafer upper surface patterned with at least one complete gold electrical circuit element, said first polymeric layer, said second polymeric layer having a Y branch waveguide with a light source port, a detector port, and an output port, said third polymeric layer, and a portion of said opposite wafer lower surface; dicing said at least one optical bench from said silicon wafer; electrically coupling a light source to said optical bench; aligning the light source on said optical bench to provide optical coupling with said light source port; affixing said aligned light source to said optical bench; affixing and electrically coupling a thermistor to said optical bench; affixing and thermally and electrically coupling a heatpipe both to said light source and to said optical bench; affixing a preamplifier to said optical bench; disposing and aligning a detector on said optical bench to provide optical coupling with said detector port; affixing the aligned detector to said optical bench; electrically coupling said detector with said preamplifier; affixing to said optical bench an optical polarization maintaining output fiber optically coupled with said output port and rotationally aligned with the polarization of said waveguide at said output port; mechanically and thermally coupling a thermoelectric cooler to said optical bench; electrically coupling each of the thermoelectric cooler, light source, thermistor, heatpipe, and preamplifier, to electrical connectors to provide for data transmission and electrical power.