Embedded optical interconnections on printed wiring boards

Optical interconnections using fully embedded optoelectronic components offer high performance interconnection options that can be integrated into current printed wiring board electrical interconnection systems. In this paper, we demonstrate fully embedded optical interconnections on commercially available printed wiring board (PWB) using an embedded thin film metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) photodetector. The detailed fabrication steps and process conditions are described in this paper. The photocurrent to dark current ratio for the embedded photodetector was over 100, and the measured impulse response of the fabricated embedded MSM photodetector was 22 ps.