Optoelectronic Multi-Chip Module Demonstrator System

Much research has been conducted in the area of optoelectronic interconnection and packaging technology. Much of this work is an effort to develop high bandwidth and low latency optoelectronic chip-to-chip interconnection, or “optoelectronic multi-chip modules” (OE-MCM’s). Most current designs for optoelectronic OE-MCM technology suffer from problems caused by overly complex optical alignment requirements, which prevent them from being commercially feasible. Our group’s contribution to this area involves the use of rigid imaging fiber bundles, which serve as both the interconnection medium and the packaging for chip-to-chip interconnections. Our demonstration architecture for this technology is an OE-MCM that implements a 64-channel non-blocking fiber optic crossbar switch. Each OE-chip implements 64 channels of optical input and output that are guided within the MCM by an optic built from two segments of image guide. The focus of this paper is the design of this demonstrator system.