960 Gb/s Optical Backplane Ecosystem Using Embedded Polymer Waveguides and Demonstration in a 12G SAS Storage Array

• DOI: 10.1109/jlt.2013.2278401
• Publication Date: 2013-08-22T19:13:47Z
• Authors: Katharine Schmidtke; Frank Flens; Alex Worrall; Richard Pitwon; Felix Betschon; Tobias Lamprecht; Roger Krahenbuhl
• Keywords: Backplane; Transceiver; Optical cross-connect; Optical interconnect

An optical backplane ecosystem is described and demonstrated that capable of multi-Tb/s bandwidth based on embedded polymer waveguides, passive connectors, midboard transceivers with up to 28 Gb/s per lane. These systems provide the highest bandwidth-density, lowest power consumption, while maintaining signal integrity. Ecosystems built around this architecture will bandwidth-density required for next generation fabric interconnect storage, switching, routing applications in future high capacity generations Data Centers HPC systems. To demonstrate applicability technology, it was used connectivity within a functional data storage enclosure.