Fabrication of fiber bundle arrays for free-space photonic switching systems

We describe a technique for assembling fiber bundle arrays as needed in optical computing and photonic switching systems. Two 4 x 4 arrays with single-mode and multimode optical fibers were manufactured. Fiber ends were located to within 3 μm of their ideal position and to a pointing precision of 30 arcmin. A third 4 x 8 array was manufactured with single-mode fibers, and fiber ends were located to within 1.5 μm of their ideal position.