Abstract
Polymer waveguides with tunable optofluidic couplers are fabricated by the vacuum assisted
microfluidic technique for dynamic card-to-backplane optical interconnect applications. The
backplane optofluidic coupler consists of polymer waveguides with 45° integrated waveguide mirrors
and perpendicular microfluidic channel structures for translational movement of index matching
liquid and air bubbles. Controlled positioning of the air bubble or index matching liquid in
contact with the integrated mirror can effectively turn on or off each optofluidic coupler for
surface normal coupling in card-to-backplane optical interconnection. Experimental results
demonstrated about 23 dB on/off surface normal interconnect signal change for both 1/3 and half
size waveguide mirrors of the optofluidic couplers. 10 Gbps card-to-backplane optical interconnect
eye diagrams have been demonstrated showing the effectiveness of the interconnect
structure.
© 2013 IEEE
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