Optical backplane for a broadband switching system

An optical backplane for high-speed data communication between the electronic boards of a telecommunication switching system has been demonstrated successfully. A light-guiding glass plate is used for the transport of the optical signals at low loss (–0.1 dB/cm). Hybrid grating couplers are used for achromatic coupling (–1.5 dB). The backplane was integrated into a shelf of a commercial Siemens switching system with board-to-board distances up to 0.7 m and operated at a data rate of 1.4 Gbit/s on each channel.