AN OPTICAL PARALLEL INTERFACE FOR B-ISDN SWITCHING SYSTEMS

Optical interconnection is of great interest in overcoming bottlenecks in electrical interconnection in high-speed communication and informa tion processing equipments. An optical interconnection using array opt ical devices (LED and PD arrays) and ribbon optical fiber arrays (opti cal parallel interface) is the most practical and promising among vari ous optical interconnection technologies. This paper first discusses t he required specifications of the optical parallel interface, focusing on the broadband switching system applications. Then, the design and fabrication of an optical parallel interface using 12-channel monolith ic arrays of 1.3 mum wavelength LED and PD (array optical devices), an d GI62.5 ribbon optical fibers are reported. The developed optical par allel interface has small dimensions (57 x 65 x 7 mm) and transmission capability of 200 Mbps/ch signals over a 100 m distance.