Design and Application of an Optical Backplane Connection System

Tuesday, January 30 | 4:00 pm - 4:20 pm | TecPreview Theater

Optical PCB technology is likely to be initially applied on backplanes in high speed systems where the first communication bottlenecks are expected to occur. In this paper, an optical backplane connection system is described which allows for repeatable engagement and disengagement of an active optical edge connector housed on a linecard to the waveguide interface of an optical backplane. In addition, an optical backplane connection system was constructed comprising a passive optical printed circuit board and a pair of line cards incorporating the proposed pluggable optical modules. High speed data communication across the proposed connection system was successfully demonstrated.

Richard Pitwon Senior Photonics Engineer Xyratex Technologies Ltd.

Richard Pitwon obtained his BSc in Physics from the University of St Andrews and an MSc in Computing Science from Stirling University in 2001. He is currently engaged in high speed photonic hardware design at Xyratex where he has focused, over the past four years on the development of enabling technologies for optical printed circuit board systems, in particular high speed pluggable optical backplane connector solutions. To date, he has authored 7 pending patents in this field.

Brian Vicich Advanced Design Group Engineering Manager Samtec, Inc.

Brian Vicich currently manages Research and Development and Advanced Connector Product Design for Samtec (New Albany, IN). Other responsibilities include the management of the Signal Integrity Group (Harrisburg, PA). Mr. Vicich has over 14 years of electro-mechanical design experience. The last five years have been related to High Speed Connector design and optimization. Mr. Vicich was previously employed by Molex, Grayhill, and the American Electric Cordsets, and he holds six patents.

Ken Hopkins Hardware Architect Xyratex Technologies Ltd.

Ken Hopkins is a graduate of Strathclyde University in Glasgow Scotland, holding a BSc in Electrical & Electronic Engineering. Prior to joining Xyratex he spent 10 years working for IBM designing high speed digital computing platforms, followed by three years working for EM Microelectronic in Switzerland. Since 1999 he has worked as a hardware architect with Xyratex specializing in high speed digital platforms and interconnectivity solutions. He is the holder of 4 patents and author of a number of white papers.