Chip-Level 1 $\times$ 2 Optical Interconnects Using Polymer Vertical Splitter on Silicon Substrate

The chip-level 1 × 2 optical interconnects using the polymer vertical splitter developed on a silicon substrate are demonstrated. The 1 × 2 vertical-splitting configuration is realized using a polymer waveguide terminated at three silicon 45 ^° reflectors. The high-frequency transmission lines combined with the indium solder bumps are developed to flip-chip assemble a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser chip at the input port and two photodetector chips at two output ports. Total transmission loss of -3.26 dB with a splitting ratio of 1 : 1 for the proposed splitter is experimentally obtained. A 10-Gbit/s data transmission with bit error rates better than 10^-12 for two output ports is achieved. It reveals that such chip-level 1 × 2 optical interconnects using the polymer vertical splitter are suitable for high-speed data transmission with multiple output ports.