We describe a system demonstrator based on vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers, metal-semiconductor-metal detectors, printed circuit board (PCB) level optoelectronic device packaging, a compact bulk optical relay, and novel barrel/PCB optomechanics. The entire system was constructed in a standard VME electrical backplane chassis and was capable of operating at >1.7 Gbit/s of aggregate data capacity. In addition to the component technologies developed, we describe operational testing and characterization of the demonstrator.
The design, modeling, and characterization of FET-SEED Smart Pixel transceiver arrays fabricated for application in optical backplanes are presented. Results of digital and analog measurements on 4 x 4 transmitter arrays and 4 x 4 receiver arrays, packaged at the printed circuit-board level, will be presented. In addition, these results will be compared to device and circuit models developed for these optoelectronics. Finally, the description of the successful application of these optoelectronics to interconnect two printed circuit boards will be described. I. INTRODUCTION UTURE digital systems such as ATM switching sys-F tems and multiprocessor computer systems will have large printed-circuit-board (PCB)-to-printed-circuit-board connectivity requirements to support the large aggregate throughput demands being placed on such systems. Current electronic technology may not be capable of supporting both the connection densities and the bandwidth required due to limitations of multipoint electrical connections over backplane distances [ 11. Free-space optical interconnects represent a potential solution to the needs of these connection-intensive digital systems. When implemented at the PCB-to-PCB level in the form of an optical backplane, this technology is potentially capable of providing greater connectivity at higher data rates than can be supported by current or projected electronic backplanes [2]. An optical backplane can be constructed using twodimensional (2-D) arrays of passive, free-space, parallel optical-communication channels which optically interconnect PCB's via smart pixels arrays. The smart pixel optoelectronics are 2-D device arrays capable of electrical-to-optical (E/O) and optical-to-electrical (OB) conversion of digital data. In addition to the E/O and O/E conversion, these devices can perform processing operations at the backplane level such as address recognition or packet routing.
We have demonstrated a representative portion of an optical backplane using FET-SEED smart pixels and freespace optics to interconnect Printed Circuit Boards (PCB's) in a two board, unidirectional link configuration. 4 x 4 arrays of FET-SEED transceivers were designed, fabricated, and packaged at the PCB level. The optical interconnection was constructed using diffractive microoptics, and custom optomechanics. The system was operated in two modes, one showing high data throughput, 100 MBWsec, and the other demonstrating large connection densities, 2222 channel/cm"
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