SMART Events

The first SMART Group seminar for 2002 was held at Flextronics, Cork on Thursday 21st February. The topic of the day was "Photonics (Optical) Manufacturing"

Martin Dooner, Technical Chairman, SMART Group Ireland opened the meeting and welcomed over 70 attendees to the seminar held at Flextronics manufacturing facility in Cork. Flextronics is a major global operating company with presence in 28 countries and four continents with approximately 70,000 employees. As part of Flextronics ongoing development they now provide Europe with Optical Manufacturing Solutions. Ron Keith, Vice president and General Manager of Flextronics Photonics commenced the presentations with an introduction to the Photonics market and the challenges involved. Ron gave a good business strategy perspective and discussed the benefits of outsourcing optical manufacturing.

The second topic of discussion was automated fibre-optic alignment with integrated motion, vision and data acquisition by Ignazio Piacentini of National Instruments. This presentation discussed the methods and challenges involved in automated fibre-optic alignment. Ignazio outlined how National Instruments has used its standard hardware and software platforms to release an off-the-shelf flexible approach that can align the fibre to almost any optical device while measuring and controlling all the parameters. This prototype system is currently deployed in NI Milan.

Next, Richard Boulanger of Universal Equipment Solutions discussed automated fibre optic manufacturing solutions and gave a short marketing overview of the drivers for optoelectronic products. Richard reviewed the different processes for some of the butterfly packages used in industry and the automation requirements for the present and future. He addressed imaging and handling issues as well as placement and curing options. He also discussed active alignment processes and some future design options for passive alignment that could substantially reduce the cost of some short haul Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSEL's)

Speakers at the SMART Group Ireland event at Flextronics. Caroline Dowling, Flextronics, Brian Corbett, NMRC (Speaker), Mick Higgins, Flextronics (Speaker), Adriano Salvadore, Instrumentation Engineering (Speaker), Ron Keith, Flextronics Photonics (Speaker), Ignazio Piacentini, National Instruments (Speaker), Martin Dooner, SMART Group, Richard Boulanger, Universal Equipment Solutions (Speaker)

After lunch, Mick Higgins, Test Engineering Manager, Flextronics discussed issues relating to testing of optical modules in a manufacturing environment. Mick described various optical test techniques and instrumentation. He described the nature of optical signals and problems that arise during transmission (e.g. attenuation, chromatic dispersion) He also discussed test software and fibre-optic inspection techniques.

Brian Corbett, Team Leader in Optoelectronic devices, NMRC gave the next presentation on components for Photonic systems. Brian discussed active and passive devices and outlined how they are being produced for high yield low cost applications. Brian also discussed how clever engineering solutions are being used to solve various packaging challenges.

A final discussion by Ron Keith concluded the presentations, which led us into a question and answers session where the attendees had the chance to direct questions at the panel of speakers. Finally the attendees were invited on a plant tour of Flextronics manufacturing facility.

SMART Group would like to take this opportunity to thank Flextronics, the speakers and all the delegates that attended. For more information on SMART Group contact Katherine Barry on 00 3535 21-4904025 or email smart@nmrc.ie