Optical Interconnect Technology

Ray Chen, Ph.D.

Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
The University of Texas at Austin
Introduction:
projection of bandwidth
Potential markets for UTs IP portfolio
Optical backplane
Optical PC board
Passive waveguide
components
Active optical
components
Optical biosensor
Source IBM
Global optical communications
revenue and projection
Fully embedded board-level
optical interconnection
Unique architecture for optical PWB (Printed Writing
Board); all the optical components are interposed inside
the PCB
Solves the package problem/reduces cost effects
1x12 VCSEL 1x12 PIN
photodiode
12-channel polymer waveguide
[109 cm]
45 micro-mirror
Copper trace
Micro-via
VCSEL array
Optical PCB
2 mm
12-channel polymer waveguide
and 45 micro-mirror
Optical layer (~170 mm)
PSA (pressure-sensitive adhesive) film
(100/200 mm)
PCB Substrate
250mm
Cross-section of laminated optical
layer
Cu transmission lines for VCSEL (or PD) integration
PCB Sub
PCB Sub
Cu trans. lines
(thickness = ~10 mm)
PSA film
Optical layer
VCSEL
Optical Layer
Optical Layer
VCSEL
Bottom emitting VCSEL
Top emitting VCSEL
PSA (pressure-sensitive adhesive) film: 100/200 mm
Optical waveguide film layer = ~170 mm
via
Lamination of optical waveguide film
and integration of thin film VCSEL
Backplane interconnects: point-to-point
Point-to-point:
Data rate: 6.25G~10Gbps
Differential pairs to a
central switching fabric
Signal density: >50 layers,
104 nets
Wiring congestion!
Switching delay
Speed limit:
Via
Dielectric absorption of
FR4
Why high-speed optical networks
Example: A music CD contains 660 Mbytes of
data. How long would it take to send this from
Austin to Dallas?





What use is all that bandwidth?
Speed Method Transfer Time
56 Kilobits/sec PC modem 26.2 hours
500 Kb/sec Cable modem 2.93 hours
1.5 Mb/sec DSL 59 minutes
10 Mb/sec Commercial T1 service 8.8 minutes
100 Mb/sec Fiber to the home 53 seconds
Fully embedded board-level
optical interconnection
45 micro-mirror Copper trace Micro-via
VCSEL array
Optical PCB
Waveguide
Cross-section view of optical PCB
Photodiode
R. T. Chen, et al., Proc. IEEE, 88, 780-793 (2000).
(c)
Polyimide-based 1-to-48 fanout H-tree
optical waveguide on Si-substrate
(d)
Optical signal distribution
in a network card
Original VCSEL on GaAs substrate Substrate-removed VCSEL (~10 mm)
200mm
GaAs Sub
50
~ 10 mm
50
Substrate-removed 1 X 12 GaAs
VCSEL array
Flatten optical layer to facilitate embedded structure
~10 mm thickness VCSEL formation
Mechanical lapping : ~50 mm
Chemical wet-etching (citric acid : H2O2 ): ~10 mm
Integration of VCSEL and PIN
photodiode with optical waveguide film
Photolithography UV-aligner
UV-curable adhesive
112 VCSEL 112 PIN
photodiode
12-channel polymer waveguide
[109 cm]
Eye-diagram
V
bias
= 2.0 V
I
bias
= 5.0 mA
Ampl = 0.5 V
Offs = 0 V
Freq.= 10 Gb

NRZ mode
PRBS = 2
31
-1
Jitter RMS = 4.6 ps
Q-factor = 5.18
Eye width = 71.7 ps
BER/Q-factor/Jitter RMS
[ V
bias
= 2.0 V / I
bias
= 5.0 mA ]
2 4 6 8 10 12
0
5
10
15
20
25
30


-
l
o
g
[
B
E
R
]

/

Q
-
f
a
c
t
o
r

/

J
i
t
t
e
r

R
M
S
Frequency [GHz]
Q-factor
-log[BER]
Jitter RMS
Speed measurement of substrate-
removed 850nm wavelength VCSEL
Speed measurement of substrate-
removed VCSEL and PIN photodiode
0.0 5.0G 10.0G 15.0G 20.0G
-60
-57
-54
-51
-48
-45
-42
-39
-36
-33
-30
f
-3dB
= 10 GHz


R
e
s
p
o
n
s
e

[

d
B

]
Frequency [ Hz ]
1.0 mA
2.0 mA
2.5 mA
3.0 mA
4.0 mA
5.0 mA
5.5 mA
Frequency response of 850 nm VCSEL Frequency response of 850 nm PIN
photodiode
0.0 2.0G 4.0G 6.0G 8.0G 10.0G 12.0G 14.0G
-60
-57
-54
-51
-48
-45
-42
-39
-36
-33
-30
-27
-24
-21
-18
-15
VCSEL Output Power



R
e
s
p
o
n
s
e

[

d
B

]

Frequency [ Hz ]
0.1 mW
0.5 mW
1.0 mW
1.5 mW
2.0 mW