Design, fabrication, and reliability testing of embedded optical interconnects on package

Optical interconnections offer a potential solution to some of the bottlenecks that electrical interconnection systems face. Some of the challenges with optical interconnect design and development are the introduction of new optoelectronic materials and processes, the increasing bandwidth and decreasing loss requirements, and the need for reducing cost without compromising reliability. The goal of this paper is to report our ongoing work on optical interconnects and interfaces for very short-haul backplane, and board/package-level chip-to-chip interconnections. This research fits in with our future proposed integration technology of embedded optoelectronic active devices such as detector arrays, optical amplifiers and laser arrays coupled to the waveguide by alignment tolerant beam turning passive elements. Through testbed design, fabrication, and reliability testing, the waveguide polymer materials and integration process is evaluated, based on a number of factors which include: optical loss, roughness, optical aging, spectral absorption, refractive index and thermal stability.