Paper 14100-38
Paper 14100-38
Solder-reflow compatible, injection-molded thermoplastic microlens arrays for co-packaged optics
15 April 2026 • 12:40 - 13:00 CEST | Boston/Salon 11 (Niveau/Level 1)
Abstract
Efficient coupling between photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and optical fibers is one of major challenges in single-mode co-packaged optics (CPO) due to stringent alignment tolerance requirements. We present a detachable, free-space, expanded beam optical coupling between a fiber array (FA) and a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) using single-mode micro lens arrays (MLAs) molded from a novel solder-reflow resistant thermoplastic (EXTEM™ RH1017UCL) resin. Such an MLA could offer a cost-effective solution for mass production of optical interconnects. The MLAs, which consisted of eight lenses with a 250 micron pitch, facilitate either edge- or surface-coupling with high reproducibility across detachable operations due to significant relaxation of alignment tolerances between FA and PIC. Design concepts uncovered by simulation to mitigate effects of CTE difference between a thermoplastic MLA and the PIC is also discussed, for example when exposed to a high power external laser source (ELS).
Presenter
Young Joon Choi
SABIC (Netherlands)
Young Joon Choi (Lead Scientist) has been working for SABIC’s Specialties Business since 2015. His current role is application development in optics and photonics in a wide range of industries using SABIC Specialties thermoplastic resins. His focus is application-oriented research and development in polymer optics from material specification, resin conversion/molding, post-molding operations, metrology and optical performance test to facilitate interaction in the full value chain. Prior to the current role, he worked in the area of modeling and simulation of complex flows of polymeric fluids and holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) in the Netherlands.