Final Report and Documentation for the Highly Parallel, Low-Power, Photonic Interconnects for Inter-Board Signal Distribution LDRD

The Board-to-Board Optical Interconnect LDRD has successfully developed multiple free space optical interconnect technology based on Sandia developed low threshold VCSEL technology. During the past three years, Sandia has successfully demonstrated low power free space optical links operating at over 100 Mbps for several applications including a prototype weapon interface and a 4.8 Gbps VME board interconnect. A prototype weapon interface using low power VCSELs, InP receivers, and multiple element solar cells was successfully demonstrated. A low power, CMOS compatible 8x8 receiver array having integrated MIM detectors at 830 nm was developed Sandia has successfully demonstrated a low power, light weight pointing mechanism using Rainbow piezoelectric actuators. Robust, low-power, free-space optical interconnects can provide a viable solution to the problem of high bandwidth interconnects between printed circuit boards in a system.