MOHAMMAD S.
SHARAWI
Optical-electrical
printed circuit
boards—Part II
This is a two-part series that introduces
the optical-electrical printed circuit board
(O-EPCB) technology and its challenges.
Part I (which includes Fig. 1 and Fig. 2)
appeared in the January/February 2009
issue and covered a survey of current
copper-based printed circuit boards and
their limitations. It also introduced the
optical communication system and its
features. Part II will feature the challenges of
manufacturing and adapting O-EPCBs.
M
any of the optical devices men-
tioned in Part I are presently
constructed using semiconductor
technology. Therefore, the possibility of
integrating this technology with current
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPOT.2008.931499
32
semiconductor technology to produce
an O-EPCB does not seem far fetched.
However, there are many challenges that
must be overcome for such a board to be-
come practical. For example, silicon is a
very bad material for fabricating semicon-
ductor lasers due to its indirect band gap.
Consequently most lasers are constructed
using exotic materials that can increase
costs. Recently, researchers at Intel’s Pho-
tonics Technology Lab constructed the
world’s first continuous all-silicon laser,
which is based on the Raman scattering
effect (Paniccia and Koehl).
It should be noted that the major
focus of O-EPCB technology is not on
the optical-electrical conversion de-
vices, but rather the optical transmis-
sion systems. Using fiber optic cable
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© PHOTODISC
to connect devices mounted on planer
board would be much like using copper
wires to connect conventional devices
on a typical electrical circuit board. This
would be very tedious, since many small
wires would be required to provide the
density of connections required for to-
day’s components. It would also be very
challenging to solder individual wires to
each of the pins of processing devices,
as some can contain hundreds of them.
Therefore, the goal is to develop an op-
tical waveguide for O-EPCBs much like
the copper traces used in conventional
or electrical PCBs (E-PCBs).
After a suitable optical trace is devel-
oped, the focus must then be shifted to the
physical interconnections between these
waveguides and the optical-electronic (OE)
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converters. This would be much like the
optical equivalent to the invention of sur-
face mounting technology that has allowed
the density of connections on E-PCBs to
drastically increase, while lowering the cost
of production.
A conventional fiber optical com-
munication system is much like an elec-
tronic circuit constructed using crude
connections and bell wire. In order to
construct an optical circuit that could
be used to interconnect components
such as microprocessors, a standardized
method must be implemented that will
allow dense arrays of optical links at
precise locations, much like copper trac-
es. This requires the production of very
small light pathways or waveguides.
Ai et al. suggested a method for provid-
ing optical interconnections at the board
level through the use of polymer fibers. A
diagram of an O-PCB created using this
technique is shown in Fig. 3. This meth-
od integrates polymer-fiber image guides
(PFIGs) at the circuit-board level to pro-
vide optical data transmission between
processing components. Although wave-
guides can be mass produced using cur-
rent photolithography processes, in many
cases these optical pathways show signal
losses of 1.7 dB/m on average (signal loss
is wavelength dependent, so compare this
value with that of copper in Part I running
at 10GHz). While techniques of embedding
polymer-fibers may require process modi-
fications for mass production, they are a
viable alternative due to their low mate-
rial costs. It should be noted that polymer
materials do have disadvantages, including
short operating-temperature ranges and
large spectrum-dependant attenuation.
Two other methods of producing
polymer waveguide interconnects are
adapted for high volume production. The
first, proposed by Krabe and Scheel, is
called hot embossing; it is accomplished
by molding a thermoplastic substrate ma-
terial to allow formation of the optical I/O
structure. This technique is much like that
using the PFIGs. The second technique
utilizes sequential build-up multimode
step-index channel waveguides. This pro-
cess relies on applying an optical coating
on a conventional substrate to effectively
build up an optical channel or waveguide
to transport photons between devices.
This method was proposed by Immonen
et al. An example of the type of O-EPCB
proposed is shown in Fig. 4. Through ex-
perimentation, it was determined that such
a process was much more sensitive to ma-
terial defects than with electrical connec-
tors but this processes can be conducted
MARCH/APRIL 2009
Terminations
Embedded
PFIGs
Fig. 3 OPCB with embedded PFIGs.
in a mass production environment. Special
care must be taken to ensure that channels
are constructed with minimal defects.
As we look into the fabrication pro-
cess of the waveguides and O-EPCBs, a
material must be selected for use in the
fabrication process. Since waveguides
operate in the range of 830 nm, a low
optical loss within this range is the most
important selection factor for a material
because of the limitations that it poses
on the size and the design options of
the optical structures. A very good
candidate for the fabrication of wave-
guide cores and integration into PCBs is
polysiloxane. Another good material for
the fabrication process is polycarbonate
(Lehmacher and Neyer).
Agelis et al. proposed and tested a
model for designing micro-optical switch-
ing devices. Each of the optical switches
is designed as a micro-electronic-
mechanical system (MEMS), using con-
ventional processing technologies. The
optical switch contains an array of pop-up
MEMS with 32x32 mirrors, which are in-
corporated into one silicon chip. The mir-
rors reflect the light coming from the input
and direct it to the output. This process of
using mirrors for data transfer is known
to have low data-loss, low crosstalk, and
low polarization dependencies. Each mir-
ror’s size is about 150 mm 3 140 mm, with
VCSEL
Electrical Signal
Routes
Fig. 4 Example of O-EPCB with planar waveguides.
Epoxy Filling
a distance between mirrors of 500 mm.
The only disadvantage to this procedure
is the amount of time it takes for the mir-
ror to switch, which is usually about 700
ms. Fig. 5 shows an arrangement of the
mirrors and how they are used to redirect
the fiber-optic light waves.
In contrast to embedded waveguide
and poly-fiber technologies, Asakawa
et al. prototyped an O-EPCB using con-
ventional fiber light-pipes with novel
multichannel connectors that simply
plug into processing units mounted on
the board as another optical intercon-
nection system on a PCB. This type of
technology offers significant advan-
tages, as fiber technology is a proven
low-loss, high speed method of opti-
cal transport. This connector can be
produced at a low cost, as it relies
on the bare fiber cable to realize the
physical contact connection. The end
of the planar light wave circuit (PLC),
which is reinforced by a glass block, is
polished to form a flat surface slightly
etched with a buffered hydrogen fluo-
ride solution to remove the damage
caused by polishing. The guide formed
by the fiber glass block has two micro-
holes. Each has a diameter of about 126
mm, precisely the same interval as the
waveguide. The ends of the micro-
holes are conically expanded to allow
Optical Signal Photo
Routes Detectors
FR4 - Cu
Optical Waveguides
FR4 - Cu
33
the smooth insertion of the fibers.
This connection method provides low
signal loss because of the direct con-
nection of the PLC and the fiber. It also
provides stable optical performance
during temperature fluctuations and
long-term use because there is no in-
dex-matching fluid at the connection
point. Low cost connector production
is achieved because neither ferrule nor
springs are used.
An innovative approach that is
part of what is now called system-on-
package (SOP) is considered an emerging
technology for combined format for data
transfers. The SOP concept seeks to inte-
grate various system functions and mod-
ules into one compact, low cost, thin pro-
file, high performance, and lightweight
packaged system. SOP integrates the opti-
cal waveguides within the thin film pack-
age to interconnect the optical portions
of the system with other analog, radio
frequency (RF), and digital subsystems
on one single package. This approach is
under a lot of investigation (Tummala).
Some other challenges and obstacles
in the manufacturing of O-EPCBs that
have to be overcome to bring it to the
front of the interconnect market, and to
have it start competing with its copper
counterpart are:
• Maintaining dimensional accuracy
is a major contributing factor to suc-
cessfully manufacture O-EPCBs. This
is because interconnections between
waveguides and transmitter/receiver
components must be precisely lined up
to function correctly. Also, the availabil-
ity of low-loss, low-cost, and easily-fab-
ricated waveguides that can withstand
the high temperature incurred during
PCB lamination and reflow process that
do not degrade over time is as impor-
tant. Thus thermal stability is important.
• Miniaturizing of optical devices and
waveguides includes several issues and
challenges that have to be considered such
as energy confinement effects, high field
effects, chaotic noise effects, nonlinear ef-
fects, noise effects, single photon effects,
optical interference, proximity effect, and
quantum optical effect (a description of
these phenomena can be found in some
of the references and are listed here for
completeness). The manufacturing pro-
cess introduces a lot of undesirable effects
as the aforementioned ones that directly
affect the performance of the O-EPCB.
Although intensive research is under-
going the investigation of obtaining optical
interconnects on the board level (as well
as chip level), there are still some techno-
34
MEMS
Laser
Beams
Fig. 5 Routing of optical signals using
MEMS.
logical barriers that have to be overcome
to make this solution possible and cost
effective. The International Technology
Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) also
suggests some enabling solutions that will
be the focus of future work and research
in the area of ultra-high speed intercon-
nects for on-chip and board level com-
munications. Some of these are:
• use of three-dimensional metal/
dielectric (low-k) material with air gaps
and liners
• use of optical wiring/waveguides
• use of carbon nanotubes (CNT)
• use of MEMS and RF as intercon-
nect technologies.
Conclusions
The need for higher data transfer rates
for future communications and multime-
dia applications faces a limit if copper-
based PCBs are used. The limitations
of copper-based PCBs become numer-
ous for data rates higher than 1 Gb/s.
Currently, innovative procedures are be-
ing utilized to overcome some of these
limitations in high speed data products.
This article touches upon some of the
evident copper problems, and high-
lights the research being conducted in
a viable alternative; the optical intercon-
nect to be used in the O-EPCB as well
as on-chip data paths. Optical signals
do not suffer from problems like imped-
ance mismatches, crosstalk, or ground
bounce, rather actual implementation
and miniaturization of optical devices
and waveguides within the O-EPCB are
the real challenges.
Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank Jason
Gorski and Jeremy Mangas for their help
organizing some of the material. Many
thanks to the reviewers for their invalu-
able comments.
Read more about it
• M. Paniccia and S. Koehl, “The sil-
icon solution,” IEEE Spectr., vol. 42, no.
10, pp. 38 – 43, Oct. 2005.
• J. Ai and Y. Li, “Polymer fiber-
image-guide-based embedded optical
circuit board,” J. Appl. Opt., vol. 38, no. 2,
pp. 325 –332, Jan. 1999.
• D. Krabe and W. Scheel, “Optical
interconnects by hot embossing for mod-
ule and PCB technology—The EOCB
approach,” in Proc. 49th IEEE Electronic
Components and Technology Conf., June
1999, pp. 1164 –1166.
• M. Immonen and T. Rapala-Vir-
tanen, “Fabrication of low-cost panel
sized optical-printed circuit boards,” in
Proc. IEEE Electronics Packaging Tech-
nology Conf., 2005, pp. 483 – 487.
• S. Agelis, S. Jacobsson, M. Jonsson,
A. Alping, and P. Ligander, “Modular in-
terconnection system for optical PCB and
backplane communication,” in Proc. IEEE
Int. Parallel and Distributed Processing
Symp., FL, Apr. 2002, pp. 245–250.
• S. Asakawa, et al., “PLC connec-
tor with PLC fiber physical contact for
multichannel receptacle PLC modules
for optical circuit board integration,” J.
Lightwave Technol., vol. 21, no. 3, pp.
821– 830, Mar. 2003.
• R. R. Tummala, “SOP: What is it
and why? A new microsystem-integra-
tion technology paradigm—Moore’s law
for system integration of miniaturized
convergent systems of the next decade,”
IEEE Trans. Adv. Packag., vol. 27, no. 2,
pp. 241–249, May 2004.
• S. Lehmacher and A. Neyer, “Inte-
gration of polymer optical waveguides
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• International Technology Roadmap
for Semiconductors. [Online]. Available:
www.itrs.net
About the author
Mohammad S. Sharawi (m.sharawi@
ieee.org) earned his B.S. in electronics en-
gineering with highest honors from Prin-
cess Sumaya University for Technology,
Amman, Jordan, in 2000, and his M.S. in
electrical and computer engineering and
his Ph.D. in systems engineering from
Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan,
in 2002 and 2006, respectively. He served
as a signal integrity/design engineer with
Silicon Graphics Inc., until becoming a
faculty member with the Computer En-
gineering Department at Philadelphia
University, Amman, Jordan. Currently, he
is a research scientist with Oakland Uni-
versity in Michigan. His areas of research
include computer hardware design, high
frequency electronics, and software-
defined radios.
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