Integrated Optical Bus Interface Module (IOBIM)

IPITEK proposes polymer-based, integrated, optical bus interface module (OBIM). The OBIM is a critical element for the optical transmission bus and the access node in a military bi-directional broadcast bus topology, which is more reliable and rugged and also supporting Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM), for the simultaneous transmission of multi-protocol digital and analog RF signals in the military very high-speed, optical data transformation networking systems. The polymer-based OBIM integrates passive and active components, transmitting and distributing a wide variety of sensors, control and communication signals with minimum latency. The OBIM is basically “lossless” since the splitting losses in the node are fully compensated by the optical gain provided by its active components. In the Phase I work we modeled, designed and fabricated polymer-based passive components, including couplers and Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexed (DWDMs). We demonstrated a polymer-based waveguide bus, 50/50 and 30/70 couplers. The test results of the component specifications were satisfied as designed. One remarkable achievement was that we successfully fabricated a single mode, Er/Yb-doped polymer channel waveguide for optical amplifications. Under limited pumping power the gain ratio in the Er/Yb-doped polymer waveguide was 0.7 dB/cm, which was ~ thirty times higher than Er-fiber (typically, 0.025 dB/cm or 2.5 dB/m). In Phase II we will deliver prototyped, fully functional polymer IOBIMs to DARPA in system testing. The prototype IOBIM includes passive transmission bus, couplers and WDMs, and active optical amplifiers, which provide sufficient optical amplifications to compensate the losses in the optical add-drop multiplexing (OADM) nodes. Based on the success of the polymer-based optical amplifier in Phase II, in Phase III we would make new commercial products of optically- and electrically-pumped polymer-based optical amplifiers.