125-µm-pitch × 12-channel “optical pin” array as I/O structure for novel miniaturized optical transceiver chips

We have developed an optical I/O structure using an array of optical pins for a chip-scale parallel optical module named an “optical I/O core.” The optical pin is a kind of vertical polymer waveguide, which is made from UV curable resins. The optimum shape and combination of resins for the optical pins were determined by ray-trace simulation. The numerical aperture (NA) of the developed optical pins is more than 0.4. A photolithographic technique was used to produce a 125-μm-pitch × 12-channel optical pin array. The coupling losses between a GI-50 multi-mode optical fiber (MMF) and the optical pins for a receiver (RX) and transmitter (TX) were 0.41 dB and 2.3 dB, respectively. Wide coupling tolerance of more than 25 μm was also obtained when the allowable excess loss was 0.5 dB. Furthermore, clear eye diagrams were obtained for 25-Gbps back-to-back transmission by using the optical I/O cores with the optical pins and GI-50 MMF.