A 10 Gbps x 12 channel pluggable optical transceiver for high-speed interconnections

We developed a 10 Gbps x 12 channel pluggable optical transceiver. It consists of three photoelectric devices, an FR4 substrate with a microcontroller, a 12 x 2 multimode fiber with three optical connectors for the three photoelectric devices, an electrical connector, and a heat sink. This transceiver can be vertically plugged to the motherboard by using electrical connector. A vertical plug enables the photoelectric conversion devices in the optical transceiver to be located close to the logic LSI on the motherboard at high density to prevent the waveform degrading. Moreover, it is possible to do prompt repairs if the transceiver breaks down because the module is pluggable. We demonstrated error-free operation after 50 m transmission over a GI/50 multimode fiber (MMF). These performance characteristics indicated that this optical transceiver is feasible for implementation in high- throughput interconnections.