48 × 10-Gb/s cost-effective FPC-based on-board optical transmitter and receiver

In this paper, we demonstrate a low-cost, 48-channel, high-speed, flexible printed circuit (FPC)-based interconnect packaging concept for on-board optical modules. Due to the good high-speed performance and low cost, the FPC board is used as the base carrier for both transmitter and receiver modules. The on-board transmitter and receiver are based on a commercial 1-mm-pitch ISI HoLi pin grid array connector. The size of each module is only 31.5 × 31.5 mm and offers a state-of-art bandwidth density of 0.483 Gb/s/mm ² by using a compact design. Investigation of RF signal propagation on the FPC is carried out for design validation at 10 Gb/s and, in order to further explore the potential of the suggested platform, differential pairs are simulated up to 30 GHz. The low-cost packaging approach requires only several flip-chip bonding steps using industry-standard solder reflow and ultrasonic bonding processes. An 8 × 12 -channel optical straight lens connector is used to couple the light from the optics into two 48-fiber multi-fiber push on connectors with 8 × 12 -channel MT ferrules. The fully assembled transmitter and receiver are tested at 10 Gb/s demonstrating error-free operation with sensitivities comparable with those of commercial devices. Bit error rates for all 96 channels as well as representative eye diagrams at 10 Gb/s are reported.