Modeling, design, and fabrication of ultra-high bandwidth 3D Glass Photonics (3DGP) in glass interposers

This paper presents, for the first time, the 3D Glass Photonics (3DGP) technology being developed by Georgia Tech, based on ultra-thin 3D glass interposer [1]. The 3DGP system integrates both optical and electrical interconnects in the same glass substrate using photo-sensitive polymer core, and polymer cladding within an ultra-thin glass substrate. The 3DGP processes are demonstrated using 180 & 100 um thick glass substrates with 30 um diameter via and 8 um wide waveguide structures. The optical vias are used as mode transformer and high-tolerance coupler between fibers and chips. Finite-difference analysis is performed to determine the alignment tolerances of such vias.