Dynamic Backplane Ribbon Coupler for Card-to-Backplane Computer Interconnection

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"This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)."The objective of this research is to realize a card-to-backplane optical interconnection by using an array polymer waveguide data bus and laser diode activated coupler gratings. The significantly increased clock rates of computer central processing units are rapidly outpacing the corresponding electrical motherboard data rates, limited by the severe frequency-dependent electrical interconnections. Optical interconnection using polymer waveguide ribbons is a promising alternative. The proposed use of laser diode activated coupler grating in a UV curable polymer waveguide array can facilitate multi-drop interconnection while preserving optical power when a card is not plugged in. The approach is to develop a light sensitive polymer material that can realize such a coupler grating using low-power diode laser at blue or red wavelength while being UV curable to support soft lithography low-loss waveguide fabrication. A suitable waveguide array will be realized. The coupler gratings and recording hardware will be designed and fabricated to demonstrate the high-speed functionality of the optical interconnection. The intellectual merit of the proposed activity is the exploration of the new card-to-backplane optical interconnection coupler using laser diode activated waveguide grating. Furthermore, a new light sensitive material will be developed. The broader impacts of the proposed research include the development of a new card-to-backplane optical interconnect system for fast computing applications. It is expected to benefit the computing industry, computation science and engineering, high speed test equipment systems, and fiber communication networks. The proposed research will benefit university education and academic graduate research and involve undergraduate senior projects.