300-Gb/s 24-channel bidirectional Si carrier transceiver Optochip for board-level interconnects

Abstract

A parallel optical transceiver module with 24-transmitter plus 24-receiver channels has been designed and fabricated. The transceiver Optochip relies on silicon carrier technology to provide a high level of integration of the electrical and optical components onto a single substrate with high density interconnection. The transceiver Optochip consists of the Si carrier platform with 4 flip-chip attached components: two 24-channel 850nm optoelectronic arrays (VCSELs and photodiodes) and two 24-channel CMOS ICs (receivers and laser drivers). Furthermore, 150-µm diameter "optical vias" are incorporated in the Si carrier at 48 locations of the VCSEL and PD array element in order to allow optical transmission through the silicon carrier.

Terabit/s-class 24-channel bidirectional optical transceiver module based on TSV Si carrier for board-level interconnects

“…A probe-able Si carrier Optochip was first fabricated and characterized as a partial demonstration and first step toward the complete TSV Optochip reported here [4]. Although the Si carrier did not include electrical TSVs, it did incorporate the optical vias and 3 levels of wiring on the top surface to interconnect the ICs and OE arrays.…”

“…Optochip characterization showed the 24 transmitter channels operated up to 15 Gb/s and the 24 receiver channels operated error-free (BER < 10 -12 ) up to 12.5 Gb/s. This probe-able Optochip achieved a 300 Gb/s bidirectional data rate, a new record for parallel optical transceivers [4].…”

“…Three Cu wiring levels on the top side of the carrier are used for power, ground, and control distribution as well as to interconnect the OE arrays to the CMOS driver ICs. The top surface wiring is similar to that used in the previous probeable carrier and has been described in detail elsewhere [4]. The probe-able version of the silicon carrier measured 11 mm x 15 mm and was 175 µm thick.…”

“…The silicon carrier was fabricated according to the process flow described earlier [4]. First, the TSVs are etched into the silicon with a Bosch-type deep reactive ion etch (DRIE).…”

A Surface Mounting Embedded Optical Transceiver with Bi-Directional Data Rate of Eight Channels × 10 Gbps

“…A solution in the proposed method simplified the coupling and alignment compared with a 45 ı optical fiber or mirror fabricated on substrate, discrete lens, and opto-eletronics integration on a bend-flexible PCB [11][12][13]. The VCSEL and PD are first aligned with the silicon optical bench (SiOB), which has through silicon holes (TSHs) of exactly the same spacing, with the pitch of coupling lens array, and they are lightly bonded together with temporary bonding glue, as shown in Figure 4a.…”