- OEM / SystemsOEM Systems | Precision Components | Automation Sub-SystemsPI offers 1000’s of proven, off-the-shelf precision motion products that can be quickly modified for the OEM or into a custom automation sub-system.
- Meeting the Demands of OEMsOEM Systems | Precision Components | Automation Sub-SystemsPI has a long track record of working with OEMs in the most demanding industries from Semiconductor Technology to Medical Design – industries where product performance, quality, and the ability to ramp up quickly are not the only parameters required to satisfy the customer's demands. Working with technology leaders all around the world forces you to continuously improve your yield, process, and product performance. And unless your quality is outstanding, you cannot become a key supplier to major US, European, and Japanese companies in the Optics, Photonics, Semiconductor, and Automotive industry.
- Engineered Motion / Automation Sub-SystemsPrecision Automation Solutions | Engineered SystemsPI is a supplier of high-end precision motion systems and makes use of own drive components and high-precision positioners to build customized positioning and automation sub-systems —“motion engines”—for our customers. With the largest portfolio of precision motion technologies in the industry, PI engineers have the best foundation to find a solution that matches your requirements in terms of precision, quality and budget – in a timeframe that works for you.
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- ProductsPrecision Motion Technologies | Positioning SystemsOverview of the Broadest & Deepest Portfolio of Precision Motion and Automation Technologies from Piezo to Air Bearings and Linear Motors
- Products: Overview, New, Finder, ShopFind Precision Positioning Solutions Quickly - Product Finder | PI USAWith thousands of standard products and customization available, PI has the motion control positioning product solution for your application.
- Products OverviewProducts OverviewOverview of the Broadest & Deepest Portfolio of Precision Motion and Automation Technologies from Piezo to Air Bearings and Linear Motors
- New ProductsNew Motion Control & Precision Positioning Products | PI USALearn about the latest innovations in motion control and nanopositioning components and systems.
- Product FinderUse the PI Product Finder - it's fast and easy!Select the product type specified by the axes of motion required. Selection of more criteria expands or shortens the list of results. Select more than one filter at at time, for example, to find positioning stages designed for higher load capacity, too.
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- Air Bearings & Ultra High Precision StagesAir Bearing Stages | Motorized | Linear | RotaryAir bearings provide advantages over mechanical bearings when vibration-free motion is required, highly constant velocity control is crucial, and when angular repeatability and geometric performance must be optimal. Air bearing stages (linear, rotary, and spherical) replace mechanical contact by a thin air film, avoiding wear, friction, vibration, and hysteresis effects.
- Miniature Positioning StagesMiniature Positioning Stages | Supplier | ManufacturerCompact positioning stages are crucial for the miniaturization process in cutting-edge research and industrial applications, for test & measurement, optical and opto-mechanical alignment, and component assembly. PI provides the largest portfolio of miniature stages, including high-speed linear motor stages, economical stepper motor units, and ultra-compact piezo motor positioners.
- Motorized Stages: Linear, Rotary, XYMotorized Stages | Positioning | ManufacturerPI offers the broadest and deepest range of precision motion technologies for micro and nano precision applications. Our engineers work with our customers to find the best drive and bearing technology for each individual application. Having access to multiple drive and positioning technologies allows an open discussion with a better outcome for the customer.
- Overview - Motorized Linear/Rotary StagesOverview - Motorized Linear/Rotary Stages
- Linear StagesLinear Stages - Precision Positioning Solutions | PI USASeveral types of motorized precision linear translation stages | PI USA
- Fast Linear Motor Stages and ActuatorsOverview: Linear Stage, Linear Motor Driven, Fast Brushless Motor Positioning Stages | PI USABrushless linear motor-driven stages provide high speed, precision and long life.
- Z-Stages (Vertical Motion)Vertical Linear Stages – Precision Motorized Z-Positioners | PI USA
- XY StagesXY Stages – 2-Axis Motorized Precision Positioning Stages | PI USASeveral types of planar XY stages: Direct-driven stages, ball-screw stages and air bearing planar XY stages
- XYZ StagesXYZ Stage - Multi-Axis Precision Motorized Stages
- Rotary Stages / GoniometersPrecision Rotation Stage, High Resolution Rotary Positioners, Rotation Tables, Goniometers, by PI USASeveral types of motorized rotation stages: Direct-driven stages, ball-bearing stages and air bearing stages
- Heavy Duty Stages / Industrial AutomationHigh Speed / Performance Positioning Stages for Automation - Linear Stages | Rotary Stages | PI USAHigh performance motorized stages, designed for heavy duty applications in industrial precison automation.
- Sub-Systems for AutomationSYS > Engineered Motion/Automation Sub-SystemsThe PI group employs over 1,200 people in 15 countries and runs engineering and manufacturing centers on 3 continents. Select from the broadest portfolio of precision motion technologies, including piezoelectric and air bearing systems, with 1,000’s of standard products or have our engineers provide you with a custom solution.
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- Linear ActuatorsActuators | Precision | Linear | Actuator SystemA precision linear actuator is a positioning device that provides motion in 1 degree of freedom. PI designs and manufactures a variety of precision linear actuators (pushers) including economical stepper-motor driven actuators, high-speed linear motor types for automation and nanometer precise piezo-motor actuators.
- Gantries / Cartesian RobotsGantry Stages | Gantries | Cartesian RobotA gantry precision positioning stage is sometimes called a linear robot or Cartesian robot. Gantries typically provide motion in 2 or 3 linear degrees of freedom (X-Y and X-Y-Z) and are often used for pick and place applications, 3D printing or laser machining, and welding applications.
- 6-Axis Hexapods / Parallel PositionersHexapod Positioner | Six DOF | Stewart PlatformsHexapod positioners are often referred to as Stewart Platforms. A hexapod is based on a 6-axis (XYZ, Pitch, Roll, Yaw) actuator system arranged in parallel between a top and bottom platform. PI parallel kinematics (PKM) precision positioning systems have many advantages over serial kinematics stages, such as lower inertia, improved dynamics, smaller package size and higher stiffness. In addition hexapods are more flexible than conventional 6 axis positioners.
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- Control of Hexapod / Stewart Platforms: Hexapod Motion Controllers & Simulation Software6DOF Motion Platforms | Hexapod Controllers & Simulation Software | Stewart Platform | ManufacturerControllers, software and accessories for Hexapod Stewart platforms and parallel kinematic motion systems | PI USA
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- Piezo Flexure Nanopositioning StagesNanometer Precision: Piezo Stages for Nanopositioning, Piezo Nanopositioners, Piezo Flexure Scanning Stages | PI USAPI offers the broadest and deepest portfolio of nanometer precision motion technologies, from piezo-driven nanopositioning and scanning stages to motorized 6-axis hexapod positioning systems.
- Overview - Piezo Flexure StagesOverview - Piezo Flexure Stages
- Linear Piezo Flexure StagesLinear Piezo Stages for Nanopositioning – Flexure-Guided Precision NanoPositioners | PI USALargest selection of frictionless, high performance piezo-stack-driven flexure linear nanopositioning stages | PI USA
- Vertical & Tip/Tilt Piezo StagesPiezo Z-Stage, Piezo Z-Tip-Tilt Platform. Flexure Guided Nanopositioning Stages| PI USALarge selection of Piezo Z-Stages and Tip/Tilt scanners with nanometer precision | PI USA
- Fast Steering Mirrors & Tip/Tilt PlatformsPiezo Steering Mirrors | Active Optics
- Nanofocus Lens ScannersFast Piezo Focus Lens Positioners and Scanners – Piezo Flexure Guided Precision Positioners | PI USALargest Selection of Nano-Focus drives for microscope lenses – flexure-guided precision positioners
- XY Piezo Flexure StagesPiezo Stages | XY | Nanopositioning StagesLargest selection of integrated XY piezo flexure stages with nanometer precision.
- XYZ Piezo Flexure StagesXYZ Piezo Nanopositioning Stages – Flexure Guided 3-Axis Precision Positioners | PI USALargest selection of integrated XYZ piezo flexure stages with nanometer precision.
- 6-Axis Piezo Flexure Stages6-Axis Piezo Nanopositioning Stages – Flexure Guided Precision Positioners | PI USAPiezo-driven fast steering mirrors (FSM) achieve nanoradian resolution and high bandwidth.
- Tutorial - Piezo NanopositioningNanometer Precision: Nanopositioning Basics Tutorial. Piezo Nanopositioners, Scanning Stages, Flexure Guided Positioners | PI USAThere are several ways to achieve nanometer precision motion. The best positioning systems avoid friction all together, in both the drive system (motor) and in the guiding system (bearings). Frictionless bearings also avoid the bearing rumble caused by balls and rollers and provide vibration-free motion with highly constant velocity.
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- Piezo Motors: Stages & ActuatorsPiezo Motors | Linear Motor Positioners | ManufacturerPiezo Motors are intrinsically vacuum compatible, non-magnetic and self locking at rest, providing long travel compared to traditional piezo mechanisms. The individual drive concepts are optimized for different applications, they differ in their design, size, cost, force & speed and other performance parameters.
- Overview - Piezo Motors (Stages/Actuators)Overview - Piezo Motors (Stages/Actuators)
- Actuators with Piezo MotorsCompact precision linear actuators stages with several types of piezo motor drives – ultrasonic, stick-slip, piezo-walk, piezo-ratchet. | PI USA
- Linear Stages with Piezo MotorsPrecision linear stages with several types of piezo motor drives – ultrasonic, stick-slip, piezo-walk, piezo-ratchet. | PI USA
- XY Stages with Piezo MotorsXY piezo motor linear stages with several types of precision piezo motor drives – ultrasonic, stick-slip, piezo-walk | PI USA
- XY Piezo Flexure StagesXY Piezo Flexure StagesHigh-precision 2-axis nanopositioning systems integrate PICMA® piezo actuators for maximum reliability. Repeatable, drift-free positioning with optimal stability is possible by the use of high-quality nanometrology sensors.
- Rotary Stages with Piezo MotorsRotary piezo motor stages with several types of precision piezo motors– ultrasonic, stick-slip (inertia), | PI USA
- Tutorial - Piezo Motion ControlWhy All Piezo Motors are NOT Created Equal: The piezoelectric effect for precision motion control - PI Physik Instrumente.The demand for higher speed and/or precision in fields such as bio-nanotechnology, semiconductors, metrology, data comm, and photonics keep pushing manufacturers to come up with innovative drive technologies.
- Overview - Piezo Motors (Stages/Actuators)
- Piezo Transducers & ActuatorsPiezo Actuator | Piezo Transducer | ManufacturerPiezoelectric translators (transducers) are precision ceramic actuators which convert electrical energy directly into linear motion with high speed, force and virtually unlimited resolution. These actuators are used in every modern high tech field from semiconductor test & inspection to super-resolution microscopy, bio-nanotechnology and astronomy/aerospace technology.
- Piezo Actuators & Transducers: Stacks, Chips, Benders, Tubes, Spheres, Shear…Piezo Actuators & Transducers: Stacks, Chips, Benders, Tubes, Spheres, Shear…
- Value-Added Piezo Transducers & Piezo AssembliesValue Added Piezo Assemblies: Transducers, Actuators, Sensors, Manufactured by PI CeramicDeveloping and manufacturing piezo ceramic materials and components are complex processes. PI Ceramic - PI’s piezo material design and manufacturing facility - boasts several decades of experience as well as the right tools for rapid prototyping of custom engineered piezo components and assemblies. From the formulation of advanced piezo materials to the processing steps such as cutting, milling, grinding, and the precision assembly, every stage is controlled by our engineers and product specialists.
- Piezo Ceramic ComponentsPiezo Ceramic Components
- Piezo Actuators & Transducers: Stacks, Chips, Benders, Tubes, Spheres, Shear…
- Microscopy, Bio-Imaging, Life SciencesHigh Precision Microscope Stages, Piezo Lens Scanners, Tools for Bio-Imaging | PI-USAPiezo nano-positioning stages are essential tools for high-resolution microscopy, such as Super Resolution Microscopy or AFM. Their sub-atomic resolution and extremely fast response allow researchers to create higher-quality images faster. PI provides a large variety of fast Z-Stages and collar piezo objective positioners for 3D imaging (Z-stack acquisition), deconvolution, and fast focusing applications.
- Stages for Microscopy & Bio-ImagingStages for Microscopy & Bio-Imaging
- Applications: Life Sciences / MedicalPrecision motion control for medical engineering and life sciences applications | PI USA
- Stages for Microscopy & Bio-Imaging
- Photonics Alignment SolutionsActive Photonics Alignment | Optics Alignment | SolutionsPI provides a variety of innovative fiber alignment systems from motorized fiber positioners to automated optic and photonic alignment such as used in telecommunication, data commumication and for packaging / automation. In addition to fiber-based applications, fast steering systems for free-space-optical communication are also available. Products range from motorized 6D micromotion alignment systems for industrial photonics automation, through ultra-fast piezoelectric scanning & alignment modules to modular devices with manual control for laboratory test setups. All motorized systems come with extensive software for easy setup and integration.
- Vacuum Positioning Stages & ActuatorsVacuum / UHV Compatible Stages - Linear & Rotary Positioners for Vacuum, Wide Temperature Ranges | PI USAPI miCos has extensive experience in the design and manufacturing of vacuum and high vacuum compatible precision optomechanical positioning equipment for low temperature and wide temperature ranges. We provide translation stages, vertical linear stages, rotation stages, XY stages and complex multi-axis positioning systems in vacuum spec.
- VacuumProduct Series with Vacuum-Ready ItemsPI offers specific catalogue items for selected product series that are already suitable for high vacuum (HV) or ultra-high vacuum (UHV).
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- Controllers, Drivers, Motion SoftwareMotion Controllers, Piezo Drivers-High Voltage Amplifiers, and Motion Software Overview | PI USA
- Overview - Controllers & Motion SoftwareOverview - Controllers & Motion Software
- Piezo Controller, Driver, Nanopositioning Controller, High-Voltage Amplifier, Piezo Power Supply by PI USAPiezo Drivers | Piezo Motion Controllers | ManufacturerA piezo controller or driver is used to control the motion of a piezo positioning device. There are open and closed loop controllers. Open-loop controllers are often referred to as piezo driver or even piezo power supply. Closed-loop controllers are divided in two basic types: analog-servo and digital servo controllers.
- Controllers/Drivers for Motorized StagesMotion Controller | Drivers | Positioning SystemsPI provides a large variety of hardware & software solutions for high precision motion control. Our portfolio spans from integrated compact single axis servo controllers / drivers, such as popular Mercury-class motion controllers, to complex multi-axis systems for parallel-kinematics positioners, such as hexapods.
- ACS Motion ControlACS Motion Control for Industrial AutomationWe recommend the controllers of our partner, ACS Motion Control especially for automation with industrial standards. Ask us about your integrated solution!
- Software - Motion Control SoftwareMotion Control Software | Software Tools | Positioning SolutionsFor LabView, C++, VB, Matlab, Image Acquisitiong Packages, NI DAC Cards, ..... PI provides high-level, robust, easy-to-use software tools for fast, seamless integration of motion systems into application control software.
- Overview - Controllers & Motion Software
- Capacitive SensorsNanometer Resolution: Capacitance Sensors for Nano-Measuring, Nano-Metrology | PIA capacitive sensor is a proximity sensor that detects nearby objects by their effect on the electrical field created by the sensor.
- Accessories: Plates, Brackets, CablesAdapters and Cables for PI Precision Motion ComponentsStandardization is common with adapter plates and brackets, but we can create a custom accessory to fit your application system. PI products ship with the required cables. Customization is always an option.
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PI’s Fast Multichannel Photonic Alignment (FMPA) technology was introduced in 2016. It quickly amassed prestigious honors like the R&D 100 Award and the Lightwave Innovations Award for its revolutionary ability to perform multiple alignment processes in parallel, for example:
- For elements whose positional optimization depends on other elements. Examples include waveguide structures whose inputs, outputs and channels can interact, such as short waveguides whose inputs and outputs “steer” each other. Other examples include lenses or diffractive elements in imaging or resonator assemblies whose mutual positions are interrelated. FMPA can perform these optimizations in one go, yielding a global optimization that is often 100 times faster than previously possible.
- For alignments in multiple degrees of freedom. A ubiquitous example in Silicon Photonics (SiP) is any array device, where alignment motions in ThetaZ (common notation for rotation about the optical axis) cause dealignment in XY. Previously, any corrective motion in ThetaZ necessitated a pause and a realignment in XY, meaning array alignments required a lot of time. FMPA’s parallel alignment capability allows the full device alignment to be performed in one quick step, since the compensation of the geometric errors due to ThetaZ motions occurs in parallel with them.
This rapid reduction of global alignment time has proven to have a profound impact on test and assembly cost for photonic products. It is well established in industry literature that alignment is the largest contributor, overall, to product cost[1]. Since alignment must be performed many times across multiple process steps in the test and assembly of photonics devices, FMPA’s dramatic reduction in process time is highly leveraged.
Figure 1. Double upside down FMPA system (hexapod and NanoCube®) mounted on FormFactor Cascade SiP wafer prober (Image FormFactor) Figure 2. NanoCube® compact XYZ piezo flexure nanopositioner. The advantage of this piezo flexure guided technology is the frictionless and wear-free design. PI Piezo actuators can run billions of cycles without degradation. They were used on the Mars Rover, after passing 100 billion cycles of life testing without failures. Learn more There are similarities between the Silicon Photonics industry and the young semiconductor industry of the mid-1980s. Today, you can build a fab just by issuing purchase orders, but that was not the case 35 years ago. Consequently, the players of that era--such as IBM, which dominated the semiconductor industry--built their fabs around bespoke tools constructed by systems integrators who were often captive or internal.
The situation is similar in Photonics today. There have not been enough toolmakers to satisfy demand, and there has been little incentive for them to progress beyond legacy automation principles dating to the short-lived Photonics boom of 1997-2002. That boom was driven by one dominant end application: long-haul telecommunications, supplanting satellite-based approaches. That is quite unlike today’s broadly diverse end-application base, which sees exponentiating data consumption spanning needs as diverse as social networks, personal health, Big Data, the Internet of Things, and even selfies. Still, the painful memories of that era linger and have contributed to hesitation by potential new toolmaker entrants. That is finally starting to change with entrants like FormFactor with its groundbreaking Cascade wafer probers and Tegema with its Integrated Photonics Assembly tools, but it has meant that Photonics players and their contract manufacturers have often chosen to design and build their own production tools, just as IBM did in the ‘80s.
Production Example
It is necessary to protect the identity of most PI customers, so we will refer to this rather typical user as Substantial Photonic Company, or SPC. SPC manufactures networking hardware. Their devices incorporate photonic chips with multiple I/O channels, along with other elements such as lasers, photodiodes and fiber arrays. After probing[2], the chips are singulated and proceed to packaging.
Attaching the fiber arrays to the chips is one of the fundamental steps in SPC’s packaging process and will be our example here. For the reasons elaborated in the last section, SPC chose to build its own tooling. Not incidentally, this enabled them to leverage the latest alignment technology for this process (and others): PI’s FMPA.
In this and most other SiP alignments, the quantity that must be optimized is the optical power traversing the multiple channels of the device[3]. We tend to see three ways of conveying the signal from devices to PI’s controllers during test and assembly alignment:
- Optical monitor trap. Here a portion of the optical throughput through the device or channel can be directly accessed. Often this is leveraged to perform assorted metrologies on the device during test and assembly, such as spectroscopy. Inclusion of a high-bandwidth optical power meter is straightforward in these circumstances. PI’s FMPA controllers incorporate high-speed analog inputs for this purpose. So, an optical power meter with an analog output is needed. Select meters like PI’s own F-712.PM1 are optimized for fast alignment, providing the necessary fast signal together with a logarithmic response, yielding many benefits including eliminating auto-ranging (which would otherwise need to be disabled) and providing especially extensive capture capability due to the multi-decade dynamic range.
- Photocurrent tap. Here the optical throughput through the device or channel can be measured by an on-device photodiode or similar element. The resulting photocurrent is accessible to the outside world. Connecting this to a high-bandwidth transimpedance amplifier provides the signal that can FMPA’s alignment rapidly optimize. An external photodiode input on the F-712.PM1 meter can provide this easily, together with the benefits of the wide dynamic range from its logarithmic response.
- RSSI port. Some devices’ optical signal can only be measured by interrogating their Received Signal Strength Indicator port, typically via I2C or SPI. In a production alignment workstation, a simple microcontroller (such as an Arduino) is regularly employed to perform these queries rapidly in a loop, converting the numeric response to each query into a voltage to drive the FMPA process.
Figure 3. Upright FMPA system, F-712.HU1 Fast Multi-Channel Alignment Micro-Robot. This is an assembly of a fast, high-resolution closed-loop Nanocube® piezo nanopositioner and a long-travel, 6-DOF hexapod driven by brushless DC servo-motors Learn more SPC uses a mix of these in their applications. To perform the fiber-array attachment, SPC chose PI’s F-712.HU1 FMPA system (Figure 3), deploying a multitude of these at their contract manufacturer. The alignment of the fiber arrays to the silicon photonic chip proceeds as follows:
- The fiber array is brought into near proximity to the chip. SPC’s production processes are highly controlled, so their initial Z gap is repeatable to a few microns. Note: Other customers often must set or validate the Z gap. This can be accomplished via several possible methods:
- Vision. The field of machine vision has been broadly democratized in recent years, with the advent of excellent, USB-connectable cameras that can reduce the need for costlier “pro-grade” machine vision cameras and frame grabbers. Powerful and accessible vision frameworks like http://OpenCV.org and intelligent cameras like http://OpenMV.io make quick work of device-presence detection, edge detection, squaring and gap setting.
- Contact. FMPA systems are available with optional force sensors with milligram-level sensitivity. Some customers use these to bring devices into contact, establishing the Z=0 condition. Then the motion system can be commanded to back off to a desired gap.
- Optical geometry. A succession of area scans can be performed at increasing Z, allowing the beam fan-out to be observed and the absolute separation calculated. Since PI FMPA systems incorporate built-in area scan functionality and this is often used for device qualification, this can be a cost-effective approach.
- Waist finding. In some waisted applications such as with a lensed fiber, the FMPA system can perform a gradient search in Z to quickly determine the optimum Z position. An XY gradient search in parallel will keep the alignment on-beam in cases where the mechanical and optical axes are not parallel.
- Proximity sensor. Some device situations can accommodate a proximity sensor such as a capacitive probe, allowing the Z gap to be set directly.
- OTDR. Some device situations can utilize optical time-domain reflectometry to set the gap between two elements.
- In SPC’s application, first light can generally be immediately detected in the first channel of the array thanks to the 6-7 decade dynamic range of the F-712.PM1 power meter. If not, the Nanocube® can find it by performing an area scan over its full 100x100µm range in typically 300msec or less. This is a built-in command in its controller and includes runtime options such as automatic Gaussian fitting. Similarly, the hexapod (which shares nearly identical scan-and-alignment functionality and commands with the Nanocube®) can perform an area scan over ranges from microns to millimeters. The two mechanisms can even scan in parallel, speeding scans to tens of millimeters with scan resolutions down to submicron scales.
- Once first light is detected in the first channel, the Nanocube® can be commanded to optimize lock-onto the coupling with a continuous gradient search. This will fine-align and track the coupling in real time.
- Since the hexapod can rotate about any desired point in space, its pivot point is set near the optical axis of the first channel. The hexapod can then be commanded to perform a ThetaZ optimization on the 2nd channel (The identical approach is used for devices with a U-shaped loop-back channel, as often found for facilitating assembly alignment). Note that the XY lock-on of the first channel automatically accommodates misplacements of the rotational centerpoint, allowing both alignment processes to proceed in parallel— FMPA’s key advantage. Similarly, optimizations of ThetaX/ThetaY can occur at the same time for devices requiring them.
Total time for steps 1-4 is approximately one second. Glue is then applied; the XY tracking corrects any disturbance from this and accommodates drift during the early phases of epoxy polymerization.
System options can include provisions for light-curtain and other safety interlocks, and soft limits are a standard feature for implementing forbidden zones to prevent collisions.
Footnotes
[1] See, for example, “Automated High-Throughput Assembly for Photonic Packaging”, Barwicz et al, Photonics Summit, Cadence, 2017, https://www.cadence.com/content/dam/cadence-www/global/en_US/documents/company/Events/summits/photonics/fortier-2017.pdf and “Process-based cost modeling of photonics manufacture…”, E. Fuchs et al, J. Lightwave Tech., 2006, https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Process-based-cost-modeling-of-photonics-the-cost-a-Fuchs-Bruce/125e24b2e2e71860f088526441ee5ce16e6ce42c
[2] See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izM33rfVVc4 for FormFactor’s introduction to photonic wafer probing.
[3] In principle, FMPA can optimize virtually any hill-shaped figure-of-merit that can be measured or calculated with sufficient speed, including things like extinction ratio for polarization-sensitive alignments, calculations of image sharpness for imaging optic assembly, or calculations of beam quality for laser assembly. In addition, PI controllers allow virtually any fast, measured quantity to be used as a servo input, allowing automatic positioning to achieve a desired set-point.
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