An 8-Gb/s optical backplane bus based on microchannel interconnects: Design, fabrication, and performance measurements

We describe the characteristics of a microchannel-based optical backplane including signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), interconnect distances, and data transfer rates. The backplane employs 250 mum-spacing two-dimensional (2-D) vertical cavity surface emitting Lasers (VCSELs) and a microlens array to implement 500 mum-, 750 mum-, and 1-mm optical beam arrays. By integrating the transmitter and a multiplexed polymeric hologram as a deflector/beam-splitter for the guided-wave optical backplane, the result demonstrates a multibus line architecture and its high-speed characteristics. Maximum interconnect distances of 6 cm and 14 cm can be achieved to satisfy 10(-12) bit error rate (BER) using 2 x 2 beams of 500 mum- and 1 mm-spacing array devices. The total data transfer rate of the developed backplane has shown 8 Gb/s from eye diagram measurements.