Nikos Bamiedakis

Tellurite glass thin films on silica and polymer using UV (193 nm) pulsed laser ablation

Erbium-doped tellurite glass thin films were deposited using excimer (193 nm) laser ablation onto two different types of substrates: silica and polymer-coated silica for engineering optical integrated active–passive devices. The deposition conditions were optimized for both substrates in order to produce high-quality rare-earth (Er3+) ion-doped glass thin films with low propagation loss. The optical and spectroscopic properties of the deposited films, namely transmittance, fluorescence, lifetime as well as refractive indices at 633 nm were measured and analysed in detail.

Active glass–polymer superlattice structure for photonic integration

We propose an all-laser processing approach allowing controlled growth of organic-inorganic superlattice structures of rare-earth ion doped tellurium-oxide-based glass and optically transparent polydimethyl siloxane (PDMS) polymer; the purpose of which is to illustrate the structural and thermal compatibility of chemically dissimilar materials at the nanometer scale. Superlattice films with interlayer thicknesses as low as 2 nm were grown using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) at low temperatures (100 °C). Planar waveguides were successfully patterned by femtosecond-laser micro-machining for light propagation and efficient Er(3+)-ion amplified spontaneous emission (ASE). The proposed approach to achieve polymer-glass integration will allow the fabrication of efficient and durable polymer optical amplifiers and lossless photonic devices. The all-laser processing approach, discussed further in this paper, permits the growth of films of a multitude of chemically complex and dissimilar materials for a range of optical, thermal, mechanical and biological functions, which otherwise are impossible to integrate via conventional materials processing techniques.

Multimode siloxane polymer waveguides for robust high-speed interconnects

Novel multimode waveguide interconnects fabricated from high-reliability siloxane polymers are presented. The propagation characteristics are investigated and the viability of the waveguides for robust high-speed transmission at 10 Gb/s is successfully demonstrated.

Modal noise investigation in multimode polymer waveguides

In this work the recent interest in waveguides for use in short optical links has motivated a study of the modal noise dependence on launch conditions in short-reach step-index multimode polymer waveguides. Short optical links, especially those with several connection interfaces and utilising a restricted launch are likely to be subject to a modal noise power penalty. We therefore experimentally study the modal noise impact of restricted launches for a short-reach optical link employing a 50 x 50 μm polymer multimode waveguide. Lens launches resulting in small diameter input spots are investigated as are restricted launches from an 8 μm core optical fibre. For a launch spot of 10 μm diameter no impairment is observed for up to 9 dBo of mode selective loss, and for a fibre launch with a dynamic input movement of 6 μm no impairment is seen for up to 8 dBo of mode selective loss.

Polymer waveguide-based backplanes for board-level optical interconnects

Optical interconnects are increasingly considered for use in high-performance electronic systems. Multimode polymer waveguides are a promising technology for the formation of optical backplane as they enable cost-effective integration of optical links onto standard printed circuit boards. In this paper, two different types of polymer waveguide-based optical backplanes are presented. The first one implements a passive shuffle architecture enabling non-blocking on-board optical interconnection between different cards/modules, while the second one deploys a regenerative bus architecture allowing the interconnection of an arbitrary number of electrical cards over a common optical bus. The polymer materials and the multimode waveguide components used to form the optical backplanes are presented, while details of the interconnection architectures and design of the backplanes are described. Proof-of-principle demonstrators fabricated onto low-cost FR4 substrates, including a 10-card 1 Tb/s-capacity passive shuffle router and 4-channel 3-card polymeric bus modules, are reported and their optical performance characteristics are presented. Low-loss, low-crosstalk on-board interconnection is achieved and error-free (BER<;10-12) 10 Gb/s communication between different card/module interfaces is demonstrated in both polymeric backplane systems.

Dispersion studies on multimode polymer spiral waveguides for board-level optical interconnects

Dispersion studies are conducted on 1m long multimode polymer spiral waveguides with different refractive index profiles. Bandwidth-length products >40GHz×m are obtained from such waveguides under a 50/125 μm MMF, indicating the potential of this technology.

Integrated and Hybrid Photonics for High-Performance Interconnects

Optical interconnection technologies are increasingly deployed in high-performance electronic systems to address challenges in connectivity, size, bandwidth, latency, and cost. Projected performance requirements are leading to formidable cost and energy efficiency challenges. Hybrid and integrated photonic technologies are currently being developed to reduce assembly complexity and to reduce the numbers of individually packaged parts. This chapter provides an overview of the important challenges that photonics currently face, identifies the various optical technologies that are being considered for use at the different interconnection levels, and presents examples of demonstrated state-of-the-art optical interconnection systems. Finally, the prospects and potential of these technologies in the near future are discussed.

Low-cost 10 Gb/s chip-to-chip optical interconnect

A fully-integrated chip-to-chip optical interconnect fabricated on a low-cost single-layered FR4 substrate primarily using conventional electronic manufacturing practices is demonstrated. The interconnect achieves error-free 10 Gb/s data transmission and a better than ±13 µm tolerance to component misalignments.

A polymeric regenerative optical bus for board-level optical interconnections

A scalable polymer waveguide-based regenerative optical bus architecture for use in board-level communications is presented. As a proof-of-principle demonstration, a 4-channel polymer bus formed on a FR4 substrate providing 10 Gb/s/channel data transmission is reported.

Design study of light-guiding plate in backlighting system

The design of a light-guiding plate based on low-cost polymer materials and suitable for use in liquid crystal display backlighting systems is studied. Optimum design parameters are derived achieving a power loss of 0.75 dB and an output light uniformity of 40%.