Thin glass based electrical-optical circuit boards (EOCB) using ion-exchange technology for graded-index multimode waveguides

The concept and experimental results to manufacture electrical-optical circuit boards (EOCB) with buried optical waveguides using thin-glass sheets (display glass) are presented. An ion-exchange process was developed to manufacture the graded index waveguides in thin-glass sheets. Besides of their excellent optical properties no mechanical structuring is necessary for the waveguides. Their properties were simulated and experimentally validated. The circuit board assembly is presented, as well as the concept developed for the optical coupling in the module-to-board and board-to- backplane coupling, and the assembly of the pluggable electrical-optical module itself is described.