and lower in power consumption. Yet, with demand shifting from telecom-related applications to cloud service providers, the market structure is undergoing a major shift where the competition is fierce over the prices as well as alignment, assembly time reduction and space saving factors rather than the purely technological aspects.

A 70% improvement in alignment time, leading to maximum productivity 

As the SiPh market has begun to take off as a switch connection technology that enables lower cost, smaller integration and lower power consumption, the integration of modulators, waveguides, and photodetectors is progressing. Still, the hybrid type or existing discrete type, which requires the LD alignment mounting seems to remain as the mainstream for the time being. In order to reduce production costs, it’s important to have equipment with high production efficiency that can shorten the alignment time between the LDs and lenses (or optical waveguides), which require a long time for assembly. At the same time, manufacturers must be able to quickly set up a production system in response to the expansion of 5G infrastructure in the market. 

What is high-speed Peak Search Technology? 

Autocollimator technology, which leads the market share in the camera module and optical pickup markets, can be applied to the optical communication market to drastically reduce alignment time. The core of single-mode fiber (SMF) is small in size (5 to 10 μm in diameter) with a peak search adjustment tolerance of +/-0.1 to +/-1 μm. If the initial position for alignment is off by several tens to several hundreds of micrometers, it makes it difficult to easily detect the light. By using the lens optical axis detection technology developed by Suruga Seiki, we have succeeded in reducing the alignment time of optical communication devices and SMFs by instantly finding the light and leading it to the fiber core 70% faster than ever before. 

• Quicker centering and assembly (70% less time than before) 

• Space-saving equipment (1/3 of the equivalent production ratio achieved by shortening the production time) 

• Fine drive for high coupling (2.5 times higher than conventional models due to technical innovations in the fine motion mechanism) 

• Short delivery time for mass production (60% shorter than before based on the “misinterpretation time” strategy)