Planar Integration of Free-Space Optical Components

We address the problem of how to align and package a complex system with many individual components. This problem occurs, for example, when free-space optical components are used to build an optical digital computer. In order to reduce problems with the mechanical alignment and with thermal instabilities, it is necessary to reduce the number of degrees of freedom by integrating these components on common substrates. This can be achieved by using planar fabrication techniques as they are well known from the fabrication of microelectronic circuits.