DESIGN AND CHARACTERIZATION OF A MICROCHANNEL OPTICAL INTERCONNECT FOR OPTICAL BACKPLANES

The design, modeling, and experimental characterization of a microchan nel-based free-space optical interconnect is described. The microchann el interconnect was used to implement a representative portion of an o ptical backplane that was based on yield-effect transistor, self-elect ro-optic device smart-pixel transceivers. Telecentric relays were used to form the optical interconnect, and two modes based on two differen t optical window clusterings were implemented. The optical system desi gn, including the optical geometry for different degrees of clustering of windows supported by a lenslet relay and the image mapping associa ted with a free-space optical system, is described. A comparison of th e optical beam properties at the device planes, including the spot siz e and power uniformity of the spot array, as well as the effects of cl ipping and misalignment for the different operating modes, is presente d. In addition, the effects of beam clipping and misalignment for the different operating modes is presented. We show that microchannel free -space optical interconnects based on a window-clustering scheme signi ficantly increase the connection density. A connection density of 2222 connections/cm(2) was achieved for this prototype system with 2 x 2 w indow clustering. (C) 1997 Optical Society of America.