Interconnect characteristics of fiber image guides

We investigated various factors that influence the transmission of high-den sity and high-bandwidth signals propagated through fiber image guides. The effects of signal power uniformity, optical cross talk, mode dispersion, an d modal noise were considered. A model for power uniformity and optical cro ss talk is provided that we used to evaluate the channel density of several coupling modes. Also, modal noise was experimentally measured for several conditions of coupling to the fiber image guide. A commercially available f iber image guide was evaluated in the context of these performance consider ations and was experimentally tested. The resultant minimum signal channel based on these criteria was found to consist of three fiber elements. The l imit on transmission length that is due to modal dispersion was estimated a t 1.65 m at 2.5-Gbits/s and at 42 cm at 10-Gbits/s data rates. Optical cros s talk and modal noise were found to place a lower limit on the signal chan nel density. These characteristics compare favorably with electrical interc onnect densities that are projected for tape automated bonding and flip-chi p bonding techniques used at the chip-to-module and chip-to-board packaging levels. (C) 2001 Optical Society of America.