An Anchor-Board-Based Flexible Optoelectronic Harness for Off-Chip Optical Interconnects

A flexible optical interconnect prototype at board/card-level using a novel anchor-board-based optoelectronic (OE) harness is experimentally demonstrated at 2 Gb/s. The flexible OE harness comprises a thin polyimide film laminated on two narrow anchor boards where edge-emitting lasers (EELs) and p-i-n photodetectors (PDs) are positioned and integrated with polymer waveguides. High-speed electronics are surface-mounted on two separate printed-circuit boards, making the OE harness detachable and field-reparable. A large EEL-PD lateral alignment tolerance of >1.5 mm for a 15-cm interconnect distance is achieved without any microlens. One or multiple channels can be simultaneously aligned and formed during one single ultraviolet exposure. A cost-effective field repair strategy is thus envisioned.