Stackable photonic interconnect module

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-8998509-B2
Application number	US-201313831519-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 14, 2013
Priority date	Mar 14, 2013
Publication date	Apr 7, 2015
Grant date	Apr 7, 2015

Abstract

An interconnect module for communicating electrical signals and optical signals is described. In particular, an integrated circuit in the interconnect module receives and transmits the electrical signals with other components in a system that includes the interconnect module via an electrical connector. In addition, the integrated circuit receives and transmits electrical signals to a hybrid silicon-photonic bridge chip that performs electrical-to-optical and optical-to-electrical conversion. In turn, this bridge chip receives and transmits optical signals via an optical fiber. The interconnect module can be remateably connected to a backplane in the system, and can be arranged in a stacked configuration with other instances of the interconnect module. In these ways, the interconnect module facilitates dense, modular or scalable, and compact electrical and optical communication in the system.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An interconnect module, comprising:
an electrical connector, at a first edge of the interconnect module, configured to receive and to provide electrical signals;
an optical fiber, at a second edge of the interconnect module, configured to receive and to provide optical signals;
a bridge chip, having a first surface and coupled to the electrical connector and the optical fiber, configured to convert the electrical signals into the optical signals and the…

Assignees

• Oracle Int Corp

Inventors

• Thacker Hiren D
• Zheng Xuezhe
• Krishnamoorthy Ashok V
• Gilbert Gary L

Classifications

• G02B6/4284 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• H04B10/27

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G02B6/43

  Physics · mapped topic

• G02B6/4279

  Physics · mapped topic

• H04B10/801

  Electricity · mapped topic