Competitive Evaluation of Planar Embedded Glass and Polymer Waveguides in Data Center Environments

Abstract

Optical printed circuit board (OPCB) waveguide materials and fabrication methods have advanced considerably over the past 15 years, giving rise to two classes of embedded planar graded index waveguide based on polymer and glass. We consider the performance of these two emerging waveguide classes in view of the anticipated deployment in data center environments of optical transceivers based on directly modulated multimode short wavelength VCSELs against those based on longer wavelength single-mode photonic integrated circuits. We describe the fabrication of graded index polymer waveguides, using the Mosquito and photo-addressing methods, and graded index glass waveguides, using ion diffusion on thin glass foils. A comparative characterization was carried out on the waveguide classes to show a clear reciprocal dependence of the performance of different waveguide classes on wavelength. Furthermore, the different waveguide types were connected into an optically disaggregated data switch and storage system to evaluate and validate their suitability for deployment in future data center environments.

Low-Loss 3-Dimensional Shuffling Graded-Index Polymer Optical Waveguides for Optical Printed Circuit Boards

“…The dependence of the loss on the channel number is attributed to the interim time difference over the channel numbers. We already confirmed in [22] that the insertion loss of waveguides fabricated using the Mosquito method is sensitive to the interim time. On the one hand, in the case of upper level channels, Ch.…”

Postmelting Encapsulation of Glass Microwires for Multipath Light Waveguiding within Phosphate Glasses

“…In recent years many optical materials were employed in the fabrication of integrated photonic circuits and advanced waveguides, and glass remains a fundamental one among them. 1−3 Apart from the extensive use in photonic circuits, glass waveguides expand to other numerous applications that include photodetection, 4 light generation photonic devices, 5 random laser and imaging, 6 data storage components, 7,8 quantum information processing, 9 and sensing platforms. 10,11 The fabrication of glass optical waveguides relies on two major approaches, a first that involves thin film deposition procedures, and a second that is based on the glass refractive index modification.…”

“…Controlling light guidance throughout transparent solids remains a continuous scientific and technological challenge in the fields of photonics and optoelectronics. In recent years many optical materials were employed in the fabrication of integrated photonic circuits and advanced waveguides, and glass remains a fundamental one among them. − Apart from the extensive use in photonic circuits, glass waveguides expand to other numerous applications that include photodetection, light generation photonic devices, random laser and imaging, data storage components, , quantum information processing, and sensing platforms. , …”