Passive assembly of parallel optical devices onto polymer‐based optical printed circuit boards

Abstract

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to present the latest results from research and development into future optical printed circuit board (OPCB) interconnects and low-cost assembly methods. Design/methodology/approach -A novel method of high-precision passive alignment and assembly to OPCBs was invented and a full evaluation platform developed to demonstrate the viability of this technique. Findings -The technique was successfully deployed to passively align and assemble a lens receptacle onto an embedded polymer waveguide array in an electro-OPCB. The lens receptacle formed a critical part of a dual lens pluggable in-plane connection interface between peripheral optical devices and an OPCB. A lateral in-plane mechanical accuracy of^2 mm has been measured using this technique. Research limitations/implications -As this is a free space optical coupling process, surface scattering at the exposed waveguide end facet was significant.Originality/value -This paper details a novel method of passively assembling arbitrary optical devices onto multi-mode optical waveguides and outlines the procedure and equipment required. A lens coupling solution is also presented which reduces susceptibility of a connecting optical interface to contamination.

FirstLight: Pluggable Optical Interconnect Technologies for Polymeric Electro-Optical Printed Circuit Boards in Data Centers

“…As the midplane and its peripherals are connected in a mutually orthogonal way, Xyratex developed an in-plane pluggable connector technology and connection scheme [33] whereby the optical interfaces of optical transceiver modules housed on the mating edge of the peripheral cards can be butt-coupled to optical channels embedded on the midplane. This builds on the connection methodology demonstrated in our previous research initiatives [34] in which the optical axis of the peripheral transceiver module is collinear with the OPCB embedded optical channels, thus, eliminating the need for right-angled mirrors and minimizing the number of boundaries incurring optical loss. Xyratex developed a prototype active pluggable connector to allow optical connection between the peripheral line cards and the optical layer embedded in the midplane.…”