Polymer Pillars as Optical I/O for Gigascale Chips using Mirror-Terminated Waveguides

Polymer pillars are chip-level optical I/Os that provide spatial confinement of light propagating between a chip and a board/substrate. The integration of polymer pillars and mirror-terminated waveguides is presented. Pillars are fabricated directly above the metallized anisotropically-etched silicon sidewalls that terminate the waveguides. The mirror angle is 54.74deg, yet the presence of the pillar produces a 90deg bending of the light. Enabled by mirror-terminated waveguides, polymer pillars represent a promising optical I/O technology for GSI