ANALYSIS OF A VERTICAL-CAVITY SURFACE-EMITTING LASER-BASED BIDIRECTIONAL FREE-SPACE OPTICAL INTERCONNECT

The design of a bidirectional free-space optical interconnect system i s presented. Vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) arrays as a coherent light source and VCSEL beam collimation are described. Holo gram array design and a way to improve the diffraction efficiency by u se of a copying technique utilizing Dupont photopolymers are presented . Scattering from the hologram as a noise source is measured. An optic al model for the design of system parameters such as the VCSEL beam di ameter, size and apodization of the hologram, and size of the detector is given on the basis of cross-talk analysis of the system. The effec t of VCSEL wavelength variation on system design is considered. Aberra tions caused by the Fourier lens in the system are calculated, and way s for correction of the aberrations are discussed. (C) 1997 Optical So ciety of America.