Many packaged optoelectronic devices include both photonic devices and integrated circuits (“IC”). Such packages generally need to provide a mechanism suitable for optically coupling photonic elements on the photonic device to optical fibers and generally must be arranged in a manner that protects the integrated circuits and/or photonic devices from damage due to exposure to the outside environment. Accordingly, numerous conventional optoelectronic packages involve the formation of an optically transparent window or other transparent component that enables light to reach one or more photonic elements on the photonic device or, conversely, to be emitted by the photonic elements and exit the device.
While many of the existing optoelectronic packaging arrangements work well, there are continuing efforts to provide more reliable and cost effective ways for packaging optoelectronic devices.