High-speed optical interconnect for backplane applications

A new optoelectronic parallel bus system for fast computer-internal data transmission was developed. This parallel bus system basically consisting of laser diode arrays (or LED arrays), light-guiding stripes and photodiode arrays allows the substitution of galvanic backplanes nowadays used as computer-internal bus system. All stripes optically isolated against each other are spatially arranged such as to form an optical parallel stripe plate (OPSP). The optical transfer function of the single stripe, the corresponding system transfer rate as well as the S/N ratio and the bit error rate (BER) of the bus system have been calculated. The relevant results of calculations, corresponding system simulation and measurements are presented. These results show that the new optoelectronic parallel bus in capable to data transfer rates above 1 Gbit/s on each bit channel.© (1993) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.