OPTOMECHANICS FOR A 4-STAGE HYBRID-SELF-ELECTRO-OPTIC-DEVICE-BASED FREE-SPACE OPTICAL BACKPLANE

We present the design, fabrication, and testing of optomechanics for a free-space optical backplane mounted in a standard 6U VME backplane c hassis. The optomechanics implement an optical interconnect consisting of lenslet-to-lenslet, as well as conventional lens-to-lens, links. M echanical, optical, electrical, thermal, material, and fabrication con straints are studied. Design trade-offs that affect system scalability and ease of assembly are put forward and analyzed. Novel mounting tec hniques such as a thermal-loaded interference-fitted lens-mounting tec hnique are presented and discussed. Diagnostic tools are developed to quantify the performance of the optomechanics, and experimental result s are given and analyzed. (C) 1997 Optical Society of America.