Transient Thermomechanical Simulation of Laser Hammering in Optoelectronic Package Manufacturing

Laser hammering (LH) is a process used in the manufacturing of butterfly optoelectronic packages to correct laser-to-fiber misalignment that occurs when the semiconductor lasers are welded in place. High-power, precisely positioned pulsed lasers are used in LH to induce deformation of the fiber support housing to, in turn, induce realignment. A thermomechanical modeling study of LH is reported in this paper, which focuses on the degree to which a steady-state model can predict the asymptotic state of a transient response subjected to a periodic laser excitation. A baseline, two-dimensional fiber mounting/ferrule geometry is employed in a finite element analysis simulation case study. Various laser wave forms are applied to focus spot location sizes of 50 and $200μm$ over a range of applied heat fluxes $(10-1000W∕mm2)$⁠. Effects of laser energy deposition location, as well as the use of multiple lasers, are also studied. The results show that the steady-state solution is in good agreement with the asymptotic transient response for horizontal fiber displacement and fiber temperature. The laser focus spot surface temperature predictions are also found to be in reasonable agreement. However, the vertical fiber displacement tends to be overpredicted by the steady-state solution, sometimes by as much as an order of magnitude. The causes, both physical and computational, of this disagreement are discussed.