SBIR/STTR Phase I:Optically Addressable High-Density Interconect

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)Phase I proposed innovation is an optically addressable, dynamically reconfigurable, bi-directional, high-density, optical interconnect micro-array based on the phenomenon of grating-coupled surface plasmon resonance). The proposed device addresses the need for dense, fast, low power dissipation interconnect technology created by highly parallel, next generation computationalsystems. These systems will require highly dense connection networks containing many long-distance connections. In such highly connected, highly parallel systems, the module-to-module and long distance chip-to-chip connections are responsible for the majority of the power dissipation, time delay and surface area. Thus, it has become critically important to minimize the area, power and time delay of the chip-to-chip and module-to-module interconnects while, at the same time, increasing density and bandwidth. Potential commercial applications effort will find applicability in a number of commercial markets. These include emerging interconnect devices in electronics, generalMEMs fabrication and in photolithography, where it would save time and eliminate expensive photomasking processes. Other potential markets include optical processing, certain applications in telecommunications and other miscellaneous applications for spatial light modulators.