TAGS: Electrical & Electronics Cost Efficiency Transparency High Heat Materials
SABIC will demonstrate at the 2024 Optical Fiber Communication (OFC) Conference and Exhibition the advantages of its Edison Award-winning EXTEM™ RH series resins for production and assembly of micro-lens arrays (MLAs) in commercial onboard and co-packaged optics. Two demonstrators built by Tyndall National Institute and the Chip Integration Technology Center (CITC) will be featured at the SABIC booth (#1204) during the event.
Leveraging Expanded-beam Optical Interfaces
Development of photonic integrated circuits (PICs) on silicon or other substrates has enabled compact designs with faster data rates. However, one challenge arises from the size disparity between the smaller optical mode field of silicon photonic waveguides and larger single-mode optical fibers.
At OFC 2024, SABIC will demonstrate a promising approach to this issue. This approach leverages expanded-beam optical interfaces in connections. Beam-expanding optical elements, in this case free-form lens arrays, are installed on each side of the optical connector interface. These lens arrays couple the fiber array to larger free-space beams. The use of expanded-beam coupling can relax lateral alignment tolerances and reduce occlusion effects from contamination like dust particles.
The arrays in this model are micro-molded from
EXTEM™ RH resin. This resin has a glass transition temperature of 280°C. It can be injection molded into a wide variety of free-form optical lens designs.
This connector assembly, built by Tyndall, will show how SABIC's material solutions can help improve the integration of individual optical components in these designs. It uses established optical fiber connection technologies. Visitors will be able to examine the assembly to understand how optical integration is achieved. The assembly uses optically transparent EXTEM™ resin with the potential to withstand the extreme temperatures of JEDEC Reflow or surface-mount technology (SMT).
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As data traffic increases exponentially, driven by AI, IoT and 5G technologies, rapid adoption of opto-electronics has become critical for improving data center bandwidth capacity and energy efficiency,” said Scott Fisher, general manager, Technology, SABIC Specialties. “
Optical components for applications like co-packaged optics can be difficult, complex and costly to manufacture and assemble at scale. To address this challenge, we developed EXTEM™ RH resins, which can deliver key performance and processing capabilities for lens arrays. These resins undertake scalability and manufacturability concerns regarding traditional materials, and open new opportunities to advance the state of the art in optical component design, performance and production.”
Improve the Scale and Cost-efficiency of Micro-optics Manufacturing
Accelerating adoption of emerging optical technologies requires high-volume, streamlined manufacturing of micro-optics with a relatively low per-part cost. This goal is not achievable using fused silica or glass. In contrast, EXTEM™ RH resins offer several ways to improve the scale and cost-efficiency of micro-optics processing and assembly.
First, micro-molding of EXTEM™ RH resin can deliver millimeter-size components at a scale of millions of parts. These parts have high signal integrity and low optical loss. This capability can help drive faster adoption of cutting-edge optical packaging and coupling technologies. It can accelerate adoption in data server backplanes, telecommunications switches, supercomputers and network fabrics.
Further, micro-optics molded from EXTEM™ RH resin can be aligned with the fiber and a PIC. This is done by using optically transparent adhesives before the reflow step. This simplifies the packaging process.
SABIC's other demonstrator at OFC 2024 will showcase a process developed collaboratively with CITC. This process uses an alternative interconnect material – nano silver sintering paste – for the alignment of MLAs with the board. It can replace standard epoxy adhesives. Epoxy adhesives have drawbacks such as lack of long-term stability and CTE mismatches. They also require UV-transparent lens materials for curing.
In addition, SABIC will demonstrate the use of complex-shaped lens arrays with total internal reflection. These enable a 90-degree bend of the optical coupling between VCSEL/PD and PIC in a standard MT ferrule connector.
Surpassing Traditional Materials
High-heat EXTEM™ RH resins won a 2023 Edison Award Gold Medal in the Next Generation Manufacturing category. These advanced thermoplastics provide solutions to the drawbacks of traditional materials for MLAs. Unlike glass and thermosets, EXTEM™ RH resins offer expanded freedom to design complex lens geometries. Micro-molding avoids the need for secondary operations like grinding and polishing, permitting rapid, high-volume production that can drive down costs.
To help customers achieve the full potential of these materials, SABIC’s Optical Center of Excellence in the Netherlands offers advanced support in thermoplastic processing, component design and optical performance measurement. Also, the company has developed a brochure featuring EXTEM™ resins for potential use in optical interconnects and lenses. It has also developed a video describing the potential benefits EXTEM™ resins can bring to co-packaged optical connectors.
At its exhibit at OFC, SABIC will also display material solutions for connectors, wire & cable applications, and both pluggable optics and emerging onboard and co-packaged technologies. OFC 2024 will take place on March 26-28 at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, Calif., USA.
Select Grades from SABIC's EXTEM™ Range
Source: SABIC
