Cj. Kuo et al., WAVELENGTH-DIVISION MICROLENS INTERCONNECTION USING WEAKLY DIFFRACTEDGAUSSIAN-BEAM, Optical and quantum electronics, 28(4), 1996, pp. 381-394
Free-space digital optics is a new technology that exploits the abilit
y of optics to handle thousands of light beams or information channels
at once. This and other features of optics complement the strengths a
nd weaknesses of purely electronic systems. A compact free-space optic
al system is proposed that uses an array of microlenses for chip-to-ch
ip and board-to-board interconnections. Here the weakly diffracted Gau
ssian beam and wavelength-division architecture are utilized to improv
e the channel density and reduce crosstalk in a microlens interconnect
ion system. Based on the simulation, we improve the channel capacity b
y 3.47 times (or reduce crosstalk by 93.1 dB) while maintaining the sa
me crosstalk (or channel density) compared with the conventional micro
lens interconnection system. The nonperfect filtering effect of differ
ent wavelengths at the detector plane is also studied to fully investi
gate the properties of the proposed scheme. The parameter sensitivity
of the proposed system is studied for completeness. From the simulatio
ns, the relationship between the interconnection distance and spot siz
e at the detector plane is wavelength-independent. In addition, the sp
ot size is more sensitive to change of microlens diameter than to othe
r system parameters.