An Optical Board Approach Based on SOI (silicon-on-insulator)

An optical board technology consisting of SOI (silicon-on-insulator) based rib-waveguides and hybrid integration of active III/V components is presented. The use of SOI as the material base for an optical motherboard offers specific advantages, such as well know processing using standard equipment for board fabrication. Examples for the application of our board and waveguide technology are given. The board technology is introduced by presenting an optical transmitter for C-WDM transmission. It consists of four discrete lasers, which are multiplexed using an arrayed waveguide grating (AWG). The waveguide technology is presented by discussing an DPSK-receiver chip, combining advanced waveguide technology with a very well controlled birefringence of the component.