Optical Backplane Connectors Using Three-Dimensional Waveguide Arrays

Novel compact optical backplane connectors with 2-D arranged inputs/outputs (I/Os) are demonstrated. To meet the requirement of higher integration in an optical backplane system, we applied 3-D waveguide arrays with multichannel optical I/Os. Using laser writing and a wafer-lamination process, a single-mode waveguide array with 24 I/Os and a multimode waveguide array with 16 I/Os were, respectively, fabricated. In the assembly of the backplane connector, waveguide arrays were actively aligned and combined with polymer submounts, and then, the submounts were fixed to the backplane-connector housing. To ensure efficient coupling to the optical fibers, commercially available multimedia (MD) connectors were applied to the interface of the backplane connector. Using MD connectors with multichannel I/Os, we successfully obtained 10-Gb/s/ch transmission performance.