Lumentum

In Summer 2023, I had the opportunity to work at Lumentum, a large photonic company specializing in optical products based out of San Jose, CA. I worked within the Imaging & Sensing Business Unit with a focus on 3D Sensing applications. My role involved designing test rigs for vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) to ensure they could operate in the intended application conditions.

I designed an automated test station for the high-precision imaging of surface-emitting lasers, allowing switching from one imager to another with the press of a button. The previous system involved the manual switching of components, which was a slow process prone to calibration inaccuracies. Switching was performed via motorized linear stages, and components were packaged together via custom-machined fixtures that were designed to accomodate micron-level alignment requirements. 

To validate my design, I performed Static Structural and Modal FEA simulations via ANSYS 2021 R2. The results of these simulations were used to optmize component layout and minimize the angular deflection of optical components fixed to the parts I designed. Modal simulations were key to ensure that key brackets and plates were not susceptible to resonance issues. Furthermore, I performed tolerance stack-up analyses in critical dimensions to ensure that worst-case (WC) and root sum squared (RSS) results fell within the specifications provided by the optical and test engineering teams.

I additionally had the opportunity to design a second test station that integrated an optical fiber into a piezoelectric motion control system to allow for the spectral imaging of individual emitters upon a VCSELs surface. The small spacing between emitters required sub-micron precision from my motion system and extreme precision in the alignment of the fixtures I designed. I packaged key optical components together and integrated the design into the limited working space of an existing setup to allow for expedited imaging of VCSELs.