A compact optical active connector: An optical interconnect modulewith an electrical connector interface

摘要

This paper describes a compact optical active connector that hasboth optical and electrical interfaces for an ATM switching system andhigh-speed computer network systems. This connector with an O/E or E/Oconversion module can replace the conventional electrical-cable 6-pinconnector for an ordinary printed circuit board that has only anelectrical interface. Our connector consists of a specially developedduplex MU-type submodule with photonic devices, an electrical connector,and ICs. It can be used for 620-Mbps data transmission and has lowerelectromagnetic radiation noise than conventional connectors. Usingoptical active connectors to replace electrical-cable connectors willfacilitate the introduction of high-throughput, large-capacity ATMswitching systems and next-generation local area network systems