Provided herein are systems, devices, and methods for improved optical waveguide transmission and alignment in an analytical system. Waveguides in optical analytical systems can exhibit variable and increasing back reflection of single-wavelength illumination over time, thus limiting their effectiveness and reliability. The systems are also subject to optical interference under conditions that have been used to overcome the back reflection. Novel systems and approaches using broadband illumination light with multiple longitudinal modes have been developed to improve optical transmission and analysis in these systems. Novel systems and approaches for the alignment of a target waveguide device and an optical source are also disclosed.

In a wavelength selective filter, an optical fiber collimator, an interference filter, and a reflective plate are arranged in this order from front to rear along a z-axis. The collimator has a collimator lens disposed on the rear side of an optical fiber that is opened. The interference filter includes light incident and emitting surfaces, opposed with their xy-planes rotated about a y-axis at a predetermined rotation angle. The reflective plate has a front reflective surface having a normal direction along a z-axis direction, and reflects, toward the front, light incident from the front through the interference filter, to be incident onto the interference filter. The optical fiber collimator causes the input light propagating through the optical fiber from the front to be incident onto the interference filter, and converges the reflected light transmitted through the interference filter to the optical fiber and outputs the light.

A grating coupler reflector (retro reflector) is formed within a photonics chip and includes a vertical scattering region, an optical waveguide, and a reflector. The optical waveguide is optically coupled to the vertical scattering region. The reflector is positioned at an end of the optical waveguide. The reflector is configured to reflect light that propagates through the optical waveguide from the vertical scattering region back toward the vertical scattering region. The location of the grating coupler reflector on the photonics chip is determinable by scanning a light emitting active optical fiber over the chip and detecting when light is reflected back into the active optical fiber from the grating coupler reflector. The determined location of the grating coupler reflector on the photonics chip is usable as a reference location for aligning optical fiber(s) to corresponding optical grating couplers on the photonics chip.

An optical system includes a laser source that provides a beam of light, a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) with an input aperture, and an alignment fixture that has at least one actuator. The alignment fixture may be mounted on the PIC. The optical system is aligned such that the beam of light travels from the laser source to the alignment fixture and from the alignment fixture to the input aperture of the PIC. The alignment fixture can move in at least one direction upon actuation of the at least one actuator to adjust coupling between the laser source and the PIC. The at least one actuator may be a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) structure actuated by an electrical signal.

An edge coupler having an optical bench with a mirror array. Each mirror bends, reflects and/or reshapes incident light. The edge coupler is optically coupled to the optical elements in a PIC chip which direct light to the edge of the PIC chip. The edge coupler provides a demountable, passively aligned coupling between an optical fiber array and the PIC chip. The edge coupler may be a free space edge coupler without any optical element between the mirror array and the optical elements of the PIC chip, or may include grooves each receiving a section of optical fiber with its longitudinal axis along the first light path and terminating substantially at or extending beyond the edge of the edge coupler. The optical fiber array may include an optical fiber connector terminating and supporting the ends of the optical fibers in optical alignment with the mirror array of the edge coupler.

An optical system includes a laser source that provides a beam of light, a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) with an input aperture, and an alignment fixture that has at least one actuator. The alignment fixture may be mounted on the PIC. The optical system is aligned such that the beam of light travels from the laser source to the alignment fixture and from the alignment fixture to the input aperture of the PIC. The alignment fixture can move in at least one direction upon actuation of the at least one actuator to adjust coupling between the laser source and the PIC. The at least one actuator may be a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) structure actuated by an electrical signal.

Both a conventional receiver and an HDR-compatible receiver well perform electro-optical conversion processing on transmission video data obtained by using an HDR opto-electronic transfer characteristic. High dynamic range opto-electronic conversion is performed on high dynamic range video data to obtain the transmission video data. Encoding processing is performed on this transmission video data to obtain a video stream. A container of a predetermined format including this video stream is transmitted. Metadata information indicating a standard dynamic range opto-electronic transfer characteristic is inserted into a layer of the video stream, and metadata information indicating a high dynamic range opto-electronic transfer characteristic is inserted into at least one of the layer of the video stream and a layer of the container.

A chip packaging structure that includes an optoelectronic (OE) chip mounted on a first surface of a substrate and whose optically active area is directed laterally; and a lens array for the optoelectronic (OE) chip that is mounted on the first surface of the substrate and faces to the optoelectronic (OE) chip, wherein the lens array has inside a reflector reflecting light from a first direction to a second direction, in which the first direction is substantially perpendicular to the second direction.

Both a conventional receiver and an HDR-compatible receiver well perform electro-optical conversion processing on transmission video data obtained by using an HDR opto-electronic transfer characteristic. High dynamic range opto-electronic conversion is performed on high dynamic range video data to obtain the transmission video data. Encoding processing is performed on this transmission video data to obtain a video stream. A container of a predetermined format including this video stream is transmitted. Metadata information indicating a standard dynamic range opto-electronic transfer characteristic is inserted into a layer of the video stream, and metadata information indicating a high dynamic range opto-electronic transfer characteristic is inserted into at least one of the layer of the video stream and a layer of the container.

An alignment coupler is provided to facilitate active alignment of the optical bench to the optical connector. The optical bench and the coupler together form an optical bench based connector. A method of demountable connection of an optical connector to an optical bench based connector, comprising: providing a coupler, wherein the coupler has an opening sized to receive an optical bench with clearance for relative movement between the optical bench and the coupler to facilitate alignment, and wherein the coupler is provided with a passive alignment structure structured to demountably couple to the connector; demountably coupling the coupler to the connector; placing the optical bench in the opening of the coupler; actively aligning the optical path between the optical bench and the connector to reach a desired optical alignment between the optical bench and the connector, by adjusting a position of the optical bench within the clearance of the opening of the coupler; fixing the position of the optical bench relative to the coupler at the desired optical alignment, whereby the optical bench is optically aligned to the connector using the coupler, thereby allowing subsequent demountable coupling of the optical bench to the connector by demountable coupling of the coupler.