Michael R. Tan

Interoperability of single-mode and multimode data links for data center and optical backplane applications

We show that a multimode fiber can support both single-mode “Si-Photonics” and multimode VCSEL technologies. This allows designers of data centers and optical backplanes to install one fiber infrastructure that is compatible with both technologies.

Low cost, injection molded 120 Gbps optical backplane

A low cost, blind mate, injection molded optical backplane is presented. The optical backplane consists of a 12 channel optical broadcast bus operating at 10 Gbps/channel with six blind mate optical output ports spaced 1U apart.

Converting a multimode fiber into a single-mode fiber

A multimode fiber infrastructure can be used to support single-mode Silicon Photonics by coupling only to the lowest-order mode of the fiber. This allows Silicon Photonics to share a common fiber infrastructure with multimode VCSELs.

OPTOPUS: Optical Backplane for Data Center Switches

An all optically connected data center switch with a Multi-Bus Optical Backplane is demonstrated. The broadcast bus is based on a multimode zig-zag star coupler capable of 1:6 optical broadcast on 12 multi-mode GI fiber channels.

POLO - Gigabyte/s parallel optical links for multimedia, computer cluster and switching systems

The POLO (Parallel Optical Link Organization) is a collaborative development consortium of Hewlett-Packard, AMP, Du Pont, SDL, and the University of Southern California. The goal of the POLO program is to develop low cost, high performance parallel optical links for applications in central office switching environments, clustered computing, and multimedia. Previous reports have described preliminary results and the general design of the POLO interconnect module [1]. In this paper, we discuss the performance results of the 1st generation POLO module (POLO-1) and progress in the design and assembly of the 2nd generation optimized module.