Integration of generic and application-specific optical printed circuit boards and VLSI photonic integrated circuits

Abstract

This paper presents results of our work on the design, fabrication ad integration of a generic form of optical printed circuit boards (O-PCBs) by lamination of an optical layer board and an electrical layer board. This is a part of our ongoing work on the micro/nano-scale design, fabrication and integration of optical waveguide arrays and devices for optical printed circuit board (O-PCBs) and VLSI micro/nano-photonic integrated circuit application. The optical layer consists of planar optical integrated circuits and arrays of waveguides and photonic devices of various dimensions and characteristics to perform the functions of transporting, switching, routing and distributing optical signals on flat modular boards. The electrical layer consists of electrical wires and circuits of various functions to drive the light sources, photondetectors, modulators, and others to assist the optical functions. We use lamination technique to assemble the two layers to form an O-PCB. The advantages of lamination include the processing simplification, cost reduction, fabrication of compact devices, and the reduction of alignment problem among others. VLSI micro/nano-photonic integrated circuits can be realized by using photonic crystals and plasmonic structures to perform the optical functions on a chip scale. We describe design approaches to generic and application specific O-PCBs and lamination process as a way of integrating and assembling an optical printed circuit board as a platform for VLSI photonic chip.