Optical backplane for board-to-board interconnection based on a glass panel gradient-index multimode waveguide technology

Future bandwidth needs force the development of optical interconnects for data transmission at board level. The aim is to develop technology solutions for embedded optical architectures in data center and network systems to allow significant reduction in power consumption, increased energy efficiency, system density and bandwidth scalability, which is currently unfeasible in today's copper driven systems. A passive optical backplane comprising a printed circuit board (PCB) with integrated optical waveguides and standardized pluggable optical coupling interfaces to the line cards is proposed for future data communication systems. Our activities are focused on embedded glass-based electro-optical circuit boards (EOCB) with integrated gradient-index multimode waveguides, which exhibit very low propagation loss at key optical communication wavelengths. A pre-processed glass panel with planar integrated optical waveguides is embedded into a backplane by using proven industrial PCB processes. A pluggable optical connector and receptacle system is designed for connecting the optical fiber links of the line cards with the optical waveguide circuit of the backplane.