Li Y, Wang T, Kosaka H, Kawai S, Kasahara K
Appl Opt. 1996 Dec 10;35(35):6920-33. doi: 10.1364/AO.35.006920.
We propose a scalable bit-parallel optical interconnect method for use in large-bandwidth interprocessor communications. Flexible fiber image guides are used to transmit spatially parallel optical data between a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser array and a photodetector array. We have studied a lens-based and a fiber-image-taper-based input-output coupling scheme and have modeled power-loss mechanisms and resolution-degradation mechanisms associated with the schemes. We have also performed some experiments to confirm the operational principles of the proposed schemes and to investigate the power efficiency and imaging-resolution performance of the interconnect schemes. Our study indicates that the proposed interconnects can offer a scalable method to transmit hundreds of channels of multigigabyte per second per channel optical data in parallel.
