Reflex makes optical interconnects easy

29 May 2008

US firm Reflex Photonics says that its new product line is perfect for ultrashort reach optical interconnects to and between IC packages on a single PCB.

Reflex Photonics, the US developer of high-speed optical connectivity solutions, has unveiled the Light on Board HyperDense, a line of parallel channel optical components that focus on intra- and inter-PCB applications.

"The Light On Board HyperDense IC package demonstrates the natural evolution of optical interconnections towards the microchip", said David Rolston, chief technology officer of Reflex Photonics. "The technology adds tremendous I/O bandwidth to the microchip package without disturbing the current design and manufacturing methods of chips, IC packages or printed circuit boards."

The HyperDense product is being touted as an optically enabled semiconductor packaging solution for ultrashort reach interconnections to and between IC packages on a single PCB. This would effectively enable "chip package-to-chip package" and "fibre-to-the-chip package" solutions.

Each HyperDense component features 12 individual parallel fibre-optic channels integrated into MT-based I/O connector modules, with each channel capable of speeds of up to 10 Gbps. The HyperDense products can be configured as transmitters, receivers or transceivers, with up to eight I/O connector modules available to be ordered for each type of product.

According to the company, at a full configuration, the HyperDense transmitters and receivers each will be able to handle an aggregate of up to 1000 Gbit (1 Tbit) per second with the 96 channels each running at 10 Gbps. The transceivers can handle simultaneous bi-directional data in the aggregate of up to 480 Gbps, with each of the 48 receive and 48 transit channels running at 10 Gbps.

Looking deeper
Reflex Photonics has designed its Light On Board technology to complement existing industry standard IC packages and cause no disruption to the processes that have been developed by IC and PCB manufacturers. Essentially, optical interconnects become a reality without changing the chip, the IC package or the PCB manufacturing methodology.

"All existing electrical high-speed connections to the application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) are maintained in addition to the optical connections added with Light on Board," explained the company in a statement. "All optically enabled chip packages are connected via industry standard multifibre ribbon cables and patent pending Light on Board mating clips."

The Light on Board platform connects to ASICs by introducing pre-aligned optical-to-electrical (or electrical-to-optical) channel connector modules into standard IC packages. Integrated within the channel connector modules are Reflex's pre-aligned optical engines called LightABLE optical sub-assemblies (OSAs). These are compact, encapsulated, thin modules that can be pick and placed into the IC package alongside the chip.

According to Reflex, the distance between the ASIC and the OSA is significantly less than one inch, in order to convert the ultrahigh speed electrical signals into optical signals.

If you are at the Electronic Components and Technology Conference being held in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, this week you can see Reflex Photonics at booths 517 and 519.