Skew-Free Optical Interconnections Using Fiber Image Guides for Petabit-per-Second Computer Networks

Parallel interconnections using vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL)-based fiber image guides (FIGs) have been proposed. The FIGs consist of many individual optical fibers. The core in each optical fiber is small, and thus, modal distortions may be small. All optical fibers in an array are fabricated under the same conditions. Characteristics for each optical fiber are almost uniform, and skew in FIGs is expected to be small. Interconnections using FIGs are advantageous for both free-space optics and optical fiber communications. They may enable the achievement of highly dense and large-channel communications, and easy alignment. Optical interconnections with FIGs and large-core fibers are proposed. Experiments and discussions show that the optical interconnections have very small skew and distortion. The interconnections also have merits for low cost and light weight. Module concepts and applications to petabit/s optical networks for PetaFLOPS computing are described.