Sealing optical fibres into packages

Claim 1

A method of sealing an optical fibre into a required position within a package having a wall which is discontinuous so as to form an aperture therein, comprising the steps of: providing a positioning device; holding said optical fibre in said positioning device adjacent to an end portion of said optical fibre; inserting said end portion in an axial direction through said aperture formed in said wall of said package with said positioning device; providing a piece of a low melting point material located adjacent to the periphery of said aperture; heating said low melting point material until it becomes molten, and causing the material, when molten, to flow into said aperture so as to surround and form an annular ductile seal between said periphery of said aperture and said fibre; maintaining said heat while moving said end portion in an axial and a radial direction with respect to the axis of said aperture in said wall of said package within said ductile seal with said positioning device until said end portion is in said required position relative to said aperture; and subsequently allowing said ductile seal to cool and solidify, so that said end portion is retained in said required position by said solidified material which provides both mechanical support and a hermetic seal between said optical fibre and said periphery of said aperture; said method comprising the additional step of metallising the optical fibre over a short portion to be sealed within the package while maintaining the end portion of the fibre free from metallisation, wherein the low melting point piece of material is solder and wherein, during the heating process, the solder adheres only to the metallised portion of the fibre and therefore does not come into contact with the light emitting device; wherein the metallised fibre is prepared by a series of steps which include coating a portion of the fibre with a gold solution, subjecting the coated portion of the fibre to a heating process to impregnate the gold into the fibre, cooling the coated portion of the fibre, copper plating the fibre to form a copper plate, and finally tinning the copper plate.

Claim 2

A method of sealing an optical fibre into a required position within a package having a wall which is discontinuous so as to form an aperture therein, comprising the steps of: providing a positioning device; holding said optical fibre in said positioning device adjacent to an end portion of said optical fibre; inserting said end portion in an axial direction through said aperture formed in said wall of said package with said positioning device; providing a piece of a low melting point material located adjacent to the periphery of said aperture; heating said low melting point material until it becomes molten, and causing the material, when molten, to flow into said aperture so as to surround and form an annular ductile seal between said periphery of said aperture and said fibre; maintaining said heat while moving said end portion in an axial and a radial direction with respect to the axis of said aperture in said wall of said package within said ductile seal with said positioning device until said end portion is in said required position relative to said aperture; and subsequently allowing said ductile seal to cool and solidify, so that said end portion is retained in said required position by said solidified material which provides both mechanical support and a hermetic seal between said optical fibre and said periphery of said aperture; said method comprising the additional step of metallising the optical fibre over a short portion to be sealed within the package while maintaining the end portion of the fibre free from metallisation, wherein the low melting point piece of material is solder and wherein, during the heating process, the solder adheres only to the metallised portion of the fibre and therefore does not come into contact with the light emitting device; wherein the metallised fibre is prepared by a series of steps which include coating a portion of the fibre with a gold solution, subjecting the coated portion of the fibre to a heating process to impregnate the gold into the fibre, cooling the coated portion of the fibre, copper plating the fibre to form a copper plate, and finally tinning the copper plate.