Scalable alignment solution for silicon photonics
3sae presented the Octapod microrobot for aligning silicon photonic components at Photonics West 2026
The solution addresses bottlenecks in inspection and assembly processes such as wafer probing, chip testing and packaging, where alignment speed and accuracy have a significant impact on throughput and yield.
The Octapod was developed in just a few months by a joint skunkworks team from 3sae and the consulting firm Aikidovation, led by Scott Jordan. The technical basis is the proven pentapod platform, which has been adapted for a compact, integrable and cost-efficient alignment solution. According to 3sae, the microrobot is designed to reduce typical disadvantages of older alignment architectures and enable robust, clean integration into production lines.
Aikidovation is positioning the project as an example of "Skunkworks as a Service", an approach for fast, application-oriented development and collaborative prototyping in close coordination with the customer's engineering teams.
