Description

Advances in multiprocessor and supercomputing technology are paving the way for massively parallel computing systems. However, conventional bus technology is inhibiting this progress. Propagation delays are an inherent side effect of traditional copper interconnect technology. This delay causes scalability issues such as clock skew and limitation of the bus length because of signal degradation. Optoelectronic interconnect systems address both these concerns, but to date fabrication issues have limited their adoption.

The system uses novel fabrication techniques to reduce the time and number of steps required to create the board-level infrastructure required to create an optoelectronic bus architecture. In addition, the system also has technology that allows it to interface with legacy chipsets and architectures.

Benefits

The novel fabrication techniques embodied in this invention give the system the flexibility and scalability of laser ablation with the production speed of RIE. In addition, because the fabrication process has been simplified, it takes fewer resources to accomplish and has less opportunity for fault to occur. These factors lead to the ability of the system to create next-generation optoelectronic interconnects.

Features

The system offers 100% packaging compatibility with existing PC Board and CMOS technologies. In addition, the fabrication method of the waveguide micro-mirror coupler allows for reduction of the scattering loss that occurs in oblique reactive ion etch (RIB) methods. In addition, unlike RIB, the direction of micro-mirrors can be different, allowing for more complex designs.

Market Potential/Applications

According to IDC, the market in 2000 for high-end servers and mainframes ( $1 million per unit) had $11.4 billion in sales. Because of the highly parallel nature of these systems, this is the group that seeks to benefit the most from the new technology.

Contact:

University of Texas,
Austin, USA
Website : www.otc.utexas.edu