PRACTICAL OPTICAL INTERCONNECT DEVICES AND PACKAGING, FOR HIGH SPEED COMPUTING

IN RECENT YEARS, THERE HAVE BEEN MANY APPROACHES TO HIGH BANDWIDTH OPTICAL SIGNAL DISTRIBUTION AND OPTICAL COMPUTING SYSTEMS. ALTHOUGH MANY OF THESE APPROACHES WERE INNOVATIVE AND INTRIGUING, THEY TYPICALLY INVOLVED CUMBERSOME OPTICAL SYSTEMS, GRATINGS, HOLOGRAPHIC OPTICS, ETC. WHICH HAVE THUS FAR NOT BEEN EMBRACED BY THE ELECTRONIC COMPUTING INDUSTRY. THIS PROPOSAL OFFERS AN APPROACH TO OPTICAL INTERCONNECTS BASED ON SURFACE NORMAL DEVICES IN HYBRID OPTOELECTRONIC PACKAGES WITH MULTIMODE FIBER. THE OPTICALLY OR ELECTRONICALLY CONFIGURABLE INTERCONNECTS CAN BE DIRECTLY INTERFACED TO PRESENT ELECTRONIC COMPUTER SYSTEMS. THE KEY COMPONENT IS THE VERTICAL-CAVITY SURFACE-EMITTING LASER, ALSO REFERRED TO AS A MICROLASER. BY USING STANDARD MULTIMODE FIBER CONNECTORS, THE MODULAR DESIGN ALLOWS THE USE OF COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE OPTICAL SPLITTERS AND COMBINERS TO COMPLETELY ELIMINATE THE NEED FOR SWITCHING ICS AND ALL THEIR LIMITATIONS. ANTICIPATED BENEFITS: FOR THE FIRST TIME, THE OPTOELECTRONIC COMPONENTS HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED WHICH ALLOW THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODULAR OPTOELECTRONIC PACKAGES AT REASONABLE COST. THE USE OF THESE MODULES WILL ENABLE THE COMPUTER INDUSTRY TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE INHERENT BANDWIDTH AND FAN-IN/FAN-OUT CAPABILITY OF THE OPTICAL DOMAIN WITHOUT COMPRISING PRACTICALITY OR COST.