Polymer-based optical interconnects using nanoimprint lithography

Boersma, Arjen; Wiegersma, Sjoukje; Offrein, Bert Jan; Duis, Jeroen; Delis, Jos; Ortsiefer, M.; Steenberge, Geert Van; Karpinen, Mikko; Blaaderen, Alfons van; Corbett, Brian

doi:10.1117/12.2001498

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…[2] The project partners are acknowledged for technical specification and discussion. Especially we would like to thank John Justice of Tyndall Institute for waveguide design and modelling.…”

Section: Acknowledgementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multilayer single-mode polymeric waveguides by imprint patterning for optical interconnects

et al. 2014

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Low-loss single-mode waveguides are fabricated for optical interconnection applications. Such waveguides operating at telecom wavelength window are attractive for communicating between micro-photonic integrated circuit chips, such as silicon photonics, on the carrier/package, and also for enhanced coupling of photonic devices to fibers for longer reach interconnects. Manufacturing of the waveguides is based on direct pattering of optical polymeric materials by UV nanoimprinting. The advantages of the technology include the applicability to stack multiple layers of waveguides, fabrication on various substrate materials, and simultaneous fabrication of optical coupling structures. The developed process enables high wafer-level yield with precision overlay alignment. The multilayer waveguides were implemented using the so-called inverted rib waveguide process, that is, the shape of the waveguide cores are imprinted on the undercladding layer as grooves and then the core material is deposited on the cladding layer filling the grooves and also forming a thin slab layer. The subsequent deposition of the upper cladding layer finalizes the first waveguide layer and also starts the manufacturing of the next waveguide layer. The achieved wafer-scale layer-to-layer alignment tolerances were 1...2 µm and <0.3 µm in horizontal and vertical directions, respectively. Losses measured from the long waveguide spirals made of commercial ORMOCER materials on silicon wafers were 0.35 dB/cm at 1305 nm and 0.86 dB/cm at 1530 nm, which are only around 0.15 dB/cm higher than the material losses.

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Section: Acknowledgementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multilayer single-mode polymeric waveguides by imprint patterning for optical interconnects

et al. 2014

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“…FR4, glass, silicon) and flexible (e.g. polyimide) substrate with different methods (spin coating, doctor blading, etc) and patterned with a wide range of techniques such as photolithography, embossing, direct laser writing and direct dispensing [22,31,32]. The refractive index (RI) of the core and cladding material is ~1.5255 and 1.5104 respectively at 850 nm resulting in a RI difference ∆n of ~0.015.…”

Section: Flexible Multimode Polymer Waveguidesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bend- and Twist-Insensitive Flexible Multimode Polymer Optical Interconnects

Bamiedakis

Shi

Penty

et al. 2020

J. Lightwave Technol.

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Polymer multimode optical waveguides can enable high-speed short-reach optical interconnection at low cost within high performance electronic systems. The formation of such waveguides on flexible substrates can offer important additional advantages such as light weight, ability to be tightly bent and reconfigurability which are particularly important in environments where space, weight and shape conformity are critical, for instance in vehicles and aircraft. The ability of such flexible optical interconnects to be tightly bent and twisted with low excess loss is crucial in enabling their use in systems with limited space and with movable parts. As a result, in this work, we present a new design of such flexible polymer multimode waveguides that achieves improved bending loss performance over the conventional waveguide design. It is experimentally shown that the proposed design achieves a very low excess loss of 0.5 dB for a 3 mm radius bend under a 50 µm MMF launch. In comparison, flexible waveguides with the conventional design exhibit a 2 dB excess loss under the same launch and bend conditions. Additionally, useful rules that associate the twisting loss performance of flexible polymer waveguide samples with their geometric characteristics are derived. It is shown that negligible twisting losses (< 0.1 dB for a 50 µm MMF input) can be achieved when the dimensions of the waveguide samples are appropriately selected. The results demonstrate the strong potential of such bend-and twist-insensitive flexible polymer waveguides for use in next-generation vehicles and aircraft. Index Terms-optical interconnects, polymer waveguides, multimode waveguides, flexible substrates, waveguide bends, twisting loss performance. I. INTRODUCTION ptical interconnects have attracted significant interest for use inside high performance electronic systems, such as data centres and storage systems, as they offer important advantages over their copper-based counterparts when Manuscript

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“…Embedded optical engines with several lane wide (x4, x8, x12, x16) and data rate (up to 28 Gbps per lane) and FPGA packages (up to 28Gbps) with optical pigtail connectors are available in the market with multiple vendors 4 . Moreover, fiber-optic sheets, polymers waveguides and glass waveguides are in development [5][6][7][8][9][10][11] . Optical links need to provide low absorption at the wavelength of interest; low modal dispersion and they need to match optical connector densities with low coupling loss and cross-talk.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electro-optical line cards with multimode polymer waveguides for chip-to-chip interconnects

Zhu¹,

Immonen²,

Wu³

et al. 2014

SPIE Proceedings

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In this paper, we report developments of electro-optical PCBs (EO-PCB) with low-loss (<0.05dB/cm) polymer waveguides. Our results shows successful fabrication of complex waveguide structures part of hybrid EO-PCBs utilizing production scale process on standard board panels. Test patterns include 90° bends of varying radii (40mm -2mm), waveguide crossing with varied crossing angles (90°-20°), cascaded bends with varying radii, splitters and tapered waveguides. Full ranges of geometric configurations are required to meet practical optical routing functions and layouts. Moreover, we report results obtained to realize structures to integrate optical connectors with waveguides. Experimental results are shown for MT in-plane and 90° out-of-plane optical connectors realized with coupling loss < 2dB and < 2.5 dB, respectively. These connectors are crucial to realize efficient light coupling from/to TX/RX chip-to-waveguide and within waveguide-to-fiber connections in practical optical PCBs. Furthermore, we show results for fabricating electrical interconnect structures e.g. tracing layers, vias, plated vias top/bottom and through optical layers. Process compatibility with accepted practices and production scale up for high volumes are key concerns to meet the yield target and cost efficiency. Results include waveguide characterization, transmission loss, misalignment tolerance, and effect of lamination. Critical link metrics are reported.

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Polymer-based optical interconnects using nanoimprint lithography

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

Multilayer single-mode polymeric waveguides by imprint patterning for optical interconnects

Multilayer single-mode polymeric waveguides by imprint patterning for optical interconnects

Bend- and Twist-Insensitive Flexible Multimode Polymer Optical Interconnects

Electro-optical line cards with multimode polymer waveguides for chip-to-chip interconnects

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