Design & Development of Polymeric Arrayed Waveguide Gratings (AWGs) and Packaging of Optoelectronic Transceivers

Internet traffic continues to quadruple every six months, creating a demand for unlimited bandwidth solutions that can exchange data as blistering speeds upwards of 40Gb/s and are at lower cost than what today's technology can offer!

Under the umbrella of the a nation-wide Optical Network Focus Interest Group (ONFIG) program funded by A*STAR, NTU is jointly working with Institute of Microelectronics (IME), and Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech), with the objectives of developing optical networking components such as Arrayed Wave Guides (AWG) and Optoelectronics Transceiver assemblies that offer cost effective technologies to bridge the last "mile" and enable the realization of fiber to the home applications.

AWG is a device that performs the task of Wavelength Multiplexing/Demultiplexing and is normally found along the optical transmission path that connects the Optical Networking Units (ONU) to the Central Office (CO). The ONU is a module where the information carried by optical signals is converted to electrical signals and vice versa, processed and then redistributed to the users' networking devices. The Optical Transceiver is the most critical component of the ONU.

Design and simulation of Polymer based AWG has been accomplished and novel processing techniques to fabricate AWG's are being pursued. Preliminary process development and materials characterization of Transceiver packages has also been initiated. The Transceiver assembly will be carried out by passive alignment techniques and process technology to package both AWG's and Transceiver assemblies in organic molding compounds will be developed. In addition to the pursuit of new and novel process technologies to improve the cost and reliability of the components; new methodologies to model the impact of roughness (AWGs), materials properties, and stress on optical property change (Transceiver assembly) are being developed.