Optoelectronic subcarrier for chip-to-chip optical PCB applications using long wavelength VCSELs

An interconnection scheme for chip-to-chip optical link has been proposed in this work where the silicon substrate of the driver integrated circuit (IC) is used as a subcarrier and also as a light path. This interconnection scheme uses a low loss high speed reconfigurable optical printed circuit board (REOPCB) for coupling light from one chip to the other. A multichip transmitter module has been fabricated with a 1 × 4 top-emitting long wavelength (1310 nm) VCSEL array integrated on it. The driver IC is fabricated in a 0.18 μm Si-CMOS technology with a chip size of 1.1 mm × 1.2 mm × 0.322 mm. 72% of the emitted light from the VCSEL is achieved after transmission through the silicon substrate.