ALIGNMENT TOLERANT DENSE BOARD-TO-BOARD OPTICAL INTERCONNECTS FOR SIMD PROCESSOR APPLICATIONS

The two goals of this Phase-II SBIR effort are (1) to prove the capabilities and importance of the Optical Data Pipe technology through demonstration of a high performance, ultra-compact, and practical board-to-board multichannel optical interconnect; and (2) to demonstrate that the Optical Data Pipe technology is an enabler for multiplicative increases in computing power for MDA applications. A successful Phase-II effort will demonstrate the capability for establishing well in excess of 1000 high bandwidth data channels from board to board without consuming much board real estate. Advantages of this technology include: the ability to extend high performance processors onto multiple boards; compact high density multichannel optical interconnection; practical alignment tolerances that do not require extensive modifications to commercial computer structures; high per-channel data rates; EMI sensitivity reduction; inherent opto-isolation, and low cost. The Phase II effort includes design and construction of a high performance technology demonstrator that demonstrates the high bandwidth, high channel count, ultra-compact form factor, low crosstalk, extremely relaxed alignment tolerances, and greatly diminished EMI susceptibility.