Automating Opto-Electronic Packaging

ABSTRACT Until recently, the assembly of opto-electronic components has been almost exclusively a manual process due to package complexity and relatively low production volumes. As the demand for photonics components grows, increasing emphasis is being placed on automating this assembly process to drive down component costs and increase volume. Currently, opto-electronic component manufacturers are utilizing automated equipment to conduct multi-chip epoxy and eutectic die attachments and to wire bond. In the future, other processes requiring sub-micron resolution and involving complex sets of iterative alignment steps, such as active fiber alignment and active subcomponent alignment, will be performed by fully automated systems. This equipment will incorporate several technological advances that will reduce assembly time and increase yield. Since the packaging process accounts for 60 to 80% 1 of the cost of opto-electronic components today, advances in automation will be essential for controlling component costs and meeting demand. This paper analyzes some of the challenges to automation in the field of opto-electronics, the current state of the art for opto-electronic automated die attach and wire bonding, and presents an example of some of the cost advantages associated with automation.