UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI
Grant: $337,360 - National Science Foundation - Aug. 21, 2009
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Award Description: The significantly increased clock rates of computer central processing units are rapidly outpacing the corresponding electrical motherboard data rates. Due to severe frequency dependant physical factors such as crosstalk, power dissipation, packaging density, and electromagnetic interference; copper interconnections used on existing motherboards are expected to cause drastic bottleneck problems for inter-chip and card-to-backplane data bus transfers. Optical links have shown significant advantages over electrical ones especially for high data rate applications. For card-to-backplane optical interconnects, existing method of waveguide interconnection employs 90¿ out of plane turn using 45¿ etched waveguide mirror. Such approach greatly increases cost of manufacture and degrades backplane reliability. Furthermore, the presence of such local waveguide termination consumes optical power even when the card is not plugged in at the interconnect location. We propose an array polymer waveguide data bus that realizes card-to-backplane optical interconnection by using a laser diode activated coupler grating. The control diode laser is packaged on the plug-in card. When the card is plugged in, the control laser can be turned on electrically through power connection and electrical control signal, activating the high speed optical waveguide bus connection. Only partial optical signal is tapped to facility multi-drop bi-directional data communications. It consumes no optical data power when the card is not plugged in. The signal tapping efficiency can be controlled through control laser illumination power. Low cost active coupler with short coupling length can be realized with the use of high light sensitivity polymer waveguide materials fabricated by a soft-lithographic technique. The proposed research will improve the light sensitivity of in-house synthesized azobenzene light sensitive material, realize the coupler gratings inside the waveguide, and demonstrate the functionality of the active coupler for card-to-backplane optical interconnection. The development will benefit the computing industry for the realization of higher speed computers. The proposed research will also benefit university education, academic research, and photonic material and device development.
Project Description: We are in the device study planning phase, and working on the initial material study.
Jobs Summary: For this project, Professor has committed half of a month in the summer to perform some material study. And a graduate student will also assist with the job. Additionally, I also am in the process of recruiting a graduate student. Once hired,we will include the FTEs in the jobs created figures. (Total jobs reported: 0)
Project Status: Less Than 50% Completed
This award's data was last updated on Aug. 21, 2009. Help expand these official descriptions using the wiki below.
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