15-gb/s bit-interleaved optical backplane bus using volume photopolymer holograms

A 15-Gb/s bit-interleaved optical backplane bus interconnection is experimentally demonstrated in a three-board system based on optical backplane using volume photopolymer holograms. During upstream data transferring, bit pulses from each daughter board are superposed to form an interleaved sequence while for downstream data transferring, the data broadcast from the central board are time-division demultiplexed locally at each daughter board, and only the destined bits are stored respectively. In this way, slow electronic chips can be coordinated to generate a high aggregated bandwidth to relieve wiring congestion. Both nonreturn-to-zero and return-to-zero signaling modes based on vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser sources and pulse lasers are independently employed to implement 2.5- and 15-Gb/s operations. This optical bus architecture also provides a secure and reliable data storage method at 850 nm with a bit-error rate better than 10/sup -12/.