Integration of Optical I/O within Electronic Packages for Highly Interconnected Systems

The integration of optical I/O in close proximity of IC can provide low-power data ports.  As data rates increase, the power dissipated for electrical I/O is becoming a disproportionate amount of the total power consumption of high performance systems.   Todays ICs drive signals down data routes containing impendence mismatches, skin-effect loss and dielectric loss associated with IC packages, PCB traces and connectors.  Placing the optical I/O within the IC package eliminates high speed electrical routing and associated power.  Ultra Communications has developed fiber optic transceiver technology and packaging methods that are well suited to this application. We will apply this platform technology to implement a low power I/O technology suitable for aerospace platforms, such as advanced satellite payloads including high performance sensing, processing, and communications. BENEFIT: Significantly reduced size, weight and power for data communcations within advanced commercial and military aerospace systems.