3D Printed plug-and-play Packaging Enables low-loss Fiber Coupling for Photonic Chips

Researchers led by Erik Jung from Heidelberg University, a German research university with programs in photonics and nanotechnology, together with collaborators including Wolfram Pernice from University of Münster, a public research university known for work in nanophotonics and materials science, have demonstrated a plug-and-play fiber interface for photonic integrated circuits (PICs) that achieves 0.78-decibel total coupling loss. Results published in Science describe a passive optical packaging method that uses two-photon polymerization 3D printing directly on chip surfaces to align optical fibers with photonic circuits.