What is a microsystem?

Photonic systems are generally micro-optical systems that use Gaussian-profile light beams from a laser source or an optical fiber. They can include a wide variety of components such as laser diodes, single-mode or multimode optical fibers, waveguides from different technologies, MEMS, and optical elements such as microlenses, micro-prisms, free-space diffraction gratings, or fiber Bragg gratings.

They are used in numerous applications, from long-distance fiber optic telecommunications networks to metropolitan networks, sensors, data centers, and, more recently, quantum computing.

How Optech can help you?

The design of these systems requires skills and tools that go beyond those used in imaging or lighting systems, which typically model light sources as rays. Designing photonic systems demands an understanding of physical optical propagation, dealing with Gaussian beams and, more generally, the propagation of electromagnetic fields.

The modeling and optimization tools are also different and depend on the complexity of the system. The Physical Optics Propagation module of Zemax OpticStudio is ideal for designing paraxial systems—systems in which light does not diverge or converge too abruptly—allowing efficient coupling calculations and tolerance evaluations in a fast manner. For strongly divergent beams and more complex cases, other photonic CAD tools are required, such as ANSYS Lumerical or LightTrans VirtualLab Fusion. These software packages use specialized solvers that more rigorously compute propagation equations, delivering higher accuracy.

Photonic system design also requires dedicated assembly and testing equipment to handle and align micro-components and to measure system performance.

Optech’s optical design team has over 30 years of experience in designing and assembling photonic systems. Our laboratories and cleanroom, managed by skilled technicians, are equipped with advanced technologies, including several high-resolution microscopes, two Ficontec microsystem aligners (one manual and one automated), a 2D/3D Heidelberg maskless photolithography machine, a Bragg grating writing station, a NIL Technology nanoimprinter, and a wide range of manual and motorized micro-positioners.