High-bandwidth density and low-power optical MCM using waveguide-integrated organic substrate

A high-bandwidth density and low-power optical multichip module (MCM) is developed and demonstrated. The module includes bare optical and driver chips and an application specific integrated circuit bonded on an optical waveguide-integrated organic carrier. Characterization results show that the optical I/O operates up to 20 Gb/s. The high-speed performance is not limited by the electrical characteristics of the carrier but by the optical chip bandwidth. The space between the VCSEL/PD surface and the waveguide is minimized to less than 5 μm by using an assembly technology with chip height control, which results in an average insertion loss of 2.7 dB. Alignment tolerances for a 0.5 dB insertion loss increase are ±5 and 7 μm for the transmitter, and ±6 and 7 μm for the receiver in the parallel and perpendicular directions respectively. This type of organic optical MCM promises to integrate high-bandwidth density and low-power optical I/Os with CMOS ICs on first level packages for next generation high performance computers and servers. © 2013 IEEE.