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This paper reports a novel launch scheme for coupling light into the skew rays of a graded index fiber. This is accomplished by utilizing a diffractive optical element in conjunction with a single mode fiber to mode match a graded index fiber. Results are used to confirm the fact that the element does improve the coupling into the skew rays of graded index fiber. This approach offers an alternative to existing methods based on tilting and angular offsets for the conditioned launch problem.

Graded index fiber has a limited bandwidth due to defects introduced in the fiber manufacturing process. In this paper, an alternative launch technique is presented using a diffractive element to excite specific modes in a fiber to maximize the bandwidth of graded index fiber.

Silicon v-groove structures have been utilized for passive positioning of optical fiber for fiber optic and opto- electronic applications. In this paper, we will present our results of using micro-machined silicon v-groove arrays to passively align optical fiber arrays to micro rod optics. We will also demonstrate the integration of N fiber arrays bonded into the silicon v-groove with a 1xN micro lens array, which is composed of a 2 inch-phase level diffractive optics. For the assembly of 1x6 fiber array and lens array with 16 phase level diffractive optics, the experimental results indicated that total insertion loss per link is typically 1.5-2.0 dB/channel.