Conventional packaging capabilities enable Philips Micro Devices address challenges in photonic assemblies
Ercan Sengil MBA, BSc
Driving business growth and building lasting relationships in the high-tech industry.
Conventional technologies bring reliable and familiar solutions. However, only with meaningful innovations and novel technologies we can push the limits for more efficient and highs-peed communications, enable minimally invasive and effective medical treatment and diagnostics, or many other emerging applications.
Continuous technological progress that paves the way for such advanced development comes from many domains. And photonics has been recognized as key enabling technology in nearly every application and market, such as: communications, medical devices, sensors, military, aviation, consumer electronics, metrology, computing, space, mobility, agrifood, textile, etc.
Photonics is a branch of optics that involves the application of generation, detection, and manipulation of light in the form of photons through emission, transmission, modulation, signal processing, switching, amplification, and sensing [1].
According to SPIE 2022 market report, global annual revenues from production of Optics and Photonics core components only amounted to 302 billion USD in 2020, from 182 billion USD in 2012 [2]. This is equivalent to ~7% CAGR. Global photonic packaging market has reached a market value of 258.7 billion USD in 2022 [3]. It is expected that it will progress at 5.7% CAGR to reach 452.3 billion USD by the end of 2032. Packaging has always been considered as a high-cost step in the overall production process. It traditionally accounts for nearly 30-70% of the manufacturing costs. According to the report [3], sales of photonic packaging accounted for nearly 32% of the global photonic market at the end of 2021. Of the main segments of packaging technologies, optics dominated with 42.9% in 2022.
In photonics, packaging is defined as the assembly of electronic and photonic devices from chips to boards. Therefor the conventional packaging capabilities need to be extended with dedicated photonic capabilities.? Some examples of photonic capabilities are integration of optical elements like micro-optics and lenses, optical fiber preparation and active optical coupling from fiber to PIC. This means that photonics packaging is an attractive playground for the contract manufacturers and EMS (Electronic Manufacturing Services) companies building upon the available infrastructure and having the right set of capabilities and competences.
Extending conventional packaging capabilities to photonic assembly
In conventional packaging typically three interfaces are addressed: electrical, thermal and mechanical. Photonic applications do add the new optical interface. This new interface clearly has new requirements in bonding accuracy, materials and odd shape component handling.? One example of a new challenge is the sub-micron active placement and fixation of optical components like lenses or fibers. In the picture below the conventional interfaces are shown at different integration levels and the new interfaces are added.
Capitalizing on the conventional semiconductor and MEMS assembly capabilities, Philips Micro Devices continuously extends its capabilities to serve the needs of its customers in the photonics domain and can address typical challenges like heterogeneous integration, miniaturization, and 3D geometries. Combining our phonics packaging capabilities with our manufacturing processes and capabilities, we can support our customers from development up to volume manufacturing.
Photonic applications enabled and/or realized at Philips Micro Devices
In this paragraph three important examples of photonic applications are discussed that have been assembled at Philips Micro Devices in Eindhoven:
Smart Catheters – medical devices
The digitization of smart catheters dramatically increased the demand for reliable and high data transmission in the distal tips. A good candidate to provide high-speed data transmission is the use of an optical communication through fiber. However, the extremely small size of the smart catheter tip, less than a few millimeters in diameter, hampered the integration of optical fiber connections in the catheter tip.
The work presented in [4] is a stand-alone optical data link module (ODLM) with a dimension of 240 μm x 280 μm x 420 μm for use in a 1 mm diameter intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) smart catheter. The fabrication of the ODLM is based on the Flex-to-Rigid (F2R) integration technology platform. In the ODLM, the flexible interconnects reroute the electrical contacts of the flip-chipped vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) to the side of the device by folding the substrate. This design enables the ODLM to be mounted on a standard flex-PCB and fit into a 200-300 μm gap in the IVUS catheter tip. An optical fiber that runs parallel to the catheter shaft is self-aligned to a commercially available VCSEL by inserting it into the through-silicon hole (TSH) of the ODLM. To solve the integration and miniaturization challenges, the ODLM was designed and fabricated in the well-established Flex-to-Rigid miniaturization technology.
An IVUS catheter tip based on the F2R technology was developed by Philips Research in the ENIAC “INCITE” European project (grant no.621278- 2). Standalone ODLM (Optical Data Link Module was assembled and encapsulated at Philips Micro Devices facilities).
Lidar for automotive: NewControl
NewControl (figure 5) brought together 42 partners from 12 countries to develop and deliver virtualized platforms for each vehicular sub-system essential to autonomous operation at SAE Level 3+. Each of these unify the critical components required to realize a specific function – perception, cognition, control – through vertical integration within an adaptive (not rigid) architectural framework.
Within NewControl, Philips Micro Devices Facility was contributing to the realization of the FMCW LiDAR demonstrator as shown in figure 6. The assembly concept defining the integration of optical, electrical and mechanical elements was generated together with TNO and CITC. Philips Micro Devices took care of the optical assembly steps: fiber coupling and secondary lens placement.
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Key activities were detailing the individual process technology steps that supported the optical assembly architecture by performing simulations and experiments. At both optical interfaces of the chip (in-coupling and out-coupling) the following items were addressed:
Philips PET scanner: module development for DPC (Digital Photon Counting)
Philips proprietary Digital Photon Counting (DPC) project was an integral part of the full body PET scanner development. The DPC technology offers improved detectability and characterization of small lesions. The system provides uncompromised detectability and quantification at half the PET dose (figure 7).
The project focused on on-chip conversion of the PET photons to digital signals. Considering the need for a large area array of pixels to effectively scan a whole body in a short time, individual detector dies were first electrically characterized and binned on wafer level to make sure only matching functional dies were integrated in the module. These photonic chips were assembled with a very tight spacing between the dies that traditionally would not enable wire bonding. Furthermore, the gap between dies and optical window had to be tightly controlled with regards to tilt and height to allow constant optical and electrical performance over the whole detector array (50 x 50 mm2). Furthermore, to maximize sensitivity and effective active area, the applied material had to be optically transparent to meet the required electrical properties, see figure 8.
References
[4]?J. Li, C. Li, V. Henneken, M. Louwerse, J. van Rens, P. Dijkstra, O. Raz, R. Dekker, 25.8 Gb/s Submillimeter Optical Data Link Module for Smart Catheters
Want to learn how we can help tackle your photonic challenges? Please contact us:
Ercan Sengil
Business Development Manager, Philips MEMS & Micro Devices | Philips Innovation Engineering
Paul Dijkstra
Principal Architect Micro-Assembly, Philips MEMS & Micro Devices | Philips Innovation Engineering
Special thanks to my colleagues Elena Beletkaia, Willem-Jan de Wijs and Rinze van der Kluit for their review and feedback.