Optical waveguides – With disengagable mechanical connector – Optical fiber to a nonfiber optical device connector
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-29
2003-11-04
Bruce, David V. (Department: 2882)
Optical waveguides
With disengagable mechanical connector
Optical fiber to a nonfiber optical device connector
C385S054000, C385S058000, C385S059000, C385S070000, C385S072000, C385S075000, C385S073000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06641310
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to optical communication systems and more particularly to a fiber optic cable and transceiver connector system, a support system for the optical components of the transceiver, and fiber optic cable connectors.
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
Optical couplers are now used to communicate optical signals over short and long distances between, for example, two computers, two circuit boards in one computer, and even two different chips on the same circuit board.
The technology associated with electronics has evolved extremely rapidly over the last 40 years. Computers and related peripheral equipment, satellite, and communication systems are becoming ever more sophisticated and powerful. A key factor leading to every increasing demand for faster data transfer rates is the need to perform tasks that are highly complex. Such tasks include digital signal processing, image analysis, and communications.
Data transfer, however, remains a gating capability. This issue holds true for data transfer within an integrated circuit, from one chip to another, from hybrid circuit to hybrid circuit, from one integrated circuit board to another integrated circuit board, and from system to system.
Increasing the data transfer rate can be done in any of several ways. Originally, the scheme used was to increase the number of data transfer lines, i.e., transfer the data in parallel. The historical progression according to this scheme has been in powers of two: The first real integrated circuits had 4 bit buses; next came 8 bit buses, which were then superceded by 16 bit buses; currently, 32 bit buses are the standard; and 64 bit buses are in development.
Such increases have typically come in two phases. In the first phase, a factor of two increases in the number of bits being processed takes place within the chip. Then, as the technology matures, the number of bits on the bus off the chip increases. Under such an approach, there is always a greater processing capability available on a chip than off it, and so, unfortunately, advances in chip design must wait for the rest of the system to catch up.
Accelerated development of wider bit buses (e.g. 128, 256, etc.) has been impeded by several factors including the practical limitation on the size of the mechanical connectors, the noise inherent in the signals arriving nearly simultaneously, the reliability of wide pin connectors, and the power required to drive multiple lines off-chip. As a result, many of today's successful networks are serial or relatively narrow (e.g., Gigabyte Ethernet or Myrinet) and transmitted over a single co-axial cable or possibly a single pair of optical fibers.
Another approach is to simply increase the speed with which the information is processed. Early microprocessors functioned at 4 MHz, and, with each succeeding year, the raw speed of microprocessors increases. Currently, processor speeds in excess of 400 MHz are common and processors with speeds in excess of 1 GHz are in the offing.
Increasing the processor speed is not without challenges, however, because increasing the speed also increases power requirements, introduces skew problems across the channel, and usually requires more exotic processing than is standard practice. Combining the two approaches, i.e., making wide and fast networks, is difficult because the combination of the problems inherent in each approach is overwhelming for existing technologies.
In response, integrated circuit technology that enables bi-directional, high-speed optical rather than electrical interconnections has been developed. This technology allows laser emitters and detectors to be integrated onto a semiconductor substrate, making electrical connection with electronic circuitry previously built on that substrate.
Thus, optical rather than electrical communications between electronic devices is accomplished. An optical transmitter-receiver module typically includes both light emitting devices such as vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) and light detecting devices such as photodiodes. Such a module may include separate chips, or more typically, the VCSELs and the photodiodes are grown on the same substrate. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,978,401 incorporated herein by this reference.
Driver-receiver circuitry modules, typically in the form of ASIC chips, include driver circuitry which receives electrical signals from one electronic device and which, in response, drives the VCSELs accordingly. The ASIC also include receiver circuitry for receiving signals from the photodiodes and, in response, which processes those electrical signals providing an appropriate output to the associated electronic device.
The combination of the VCSELs and the photodiodes and the ASIC circuitry is typically called an optical transceiver. One way to hybridize the VCSELs and the photodiodes and the ASIC receiver circuitry is by flip-chip bonding. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,858,814, incorporated herein by this reference.
A fiber optic cable then has one end connected to one transceiver and the other end connected to another transceiver via optical connectors.
As the density of the arrays of emitters and detectors increases, coupling a fiber optic cable to these arrays becomes an increasingly arduous task. Design considerations include properly aligning the active area of each emitter and detector with a particular fiber of the fiber optic bundle, fashioning reliable removable connectors which maintain alignment over repeated coupling and decoupling of the optical fiber bundle to the arrays, accommodating for the circuitry and wiring electrically connecting the arrays to other circuitry, keeping the arrays clean, manufacturing studies to insure that the cost of such couplers is not prohibitive and that they are not unduly complex, and insuring that when the coupler is removed from its transceiver, laser light emitted by the arrays of the transceiver does not harm the eyes of personnel in close proximity to the transceiver.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an improved fiber optic cable and transceiver connection system.
It is a further object of this invention to provide such a system which simplifies the coupling of a fiber optic cable to high density arrays of emitters and detectors.
It is a further object of this invention to provide such a system which makes it easier to properly align the active area of each emitter and detector with a particular optical fiber of the fiber optic bundle.
It is a further object of this invention to provide such a system which is highly reliable and which maintains alignment over repeated coupling and decoupling of the optical fiber bundle to the transceiver.
It is a further object of this invention to provide such a system which includes a standoff between the cable and the transceivers to accommodate the circuitry and wiring associated with the active arrays.
It is a further object of this invention to provide such a system which prevents contamination of the transceivers.
It is a further object of this invention to provide such a system which is not cost prohibitive and which is not unduly complex.
It is a further object of this invention to provide such a system which insures that when the fiber optic coupler is removed from the transceiver laser light emitted by the arrays of the transceiver cannot does not harm the eyes of the personnel in the area.
The invention results from the realization that if a support structure is fabricated about the emitter and/or detector arrays at the time the arrays are flip-chipped bonded to their associated circuitry modules, any associated optical components can be supported on the support structure on or over the arrays thus protecting the arrays and making it easier to provide a fiber optic bundle coupler which reliably aligns the fibers of the bundle with the individual emitters and/or detectors of the arrays.
This invention results from the further realization that if a face plate is used as an optical component to over-sample light from the arrays, then the
Bruce David V.
Maine & Asmus
Teraconnect Inc.
Wang George Y.
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