Fiber-Optic Technology Could Benefit Computer and Electronics Test Equipment

Monday, December 01 2008

An innovative technology capable of moving data faster within high-end computers may soon benefit the multi-billion-dollar electronics test equipment market. Using a patented fiberoptic polymeric ribbon technology, circuit boards, central processors, and memory can be optically interconnected for faster data transfer within computer systems.

Missile Defense Agency (MDA) funded New Span Opto- Technology of Miami, FL through a 2004 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II contract to develop a fiber-optics component for military computer systems that can relay high rates of data. Sophisticated data acquisition and analysis systems often include a number of plug-in modules to perform dedicated tasks, such as signal processing or image processing. The central processor must synthesize the data from many such sources. As the capabilities of the electronics increase, a data bottleneck occurs unless the supporting components can communicate at sufficiently high rates.

How it Works

Conventional interconnect systems, which use conductive cables or copper traces (the conductive paths etched into the copper cladding of a printed circuit board), have reached their inherent data-rate limit. Optical couplers, the optical equivalent of electrical connectors, can fill the need in high-end systems for military processing and commercial test equipment such as digital oscilloscopes — instruments commonly used to view and compare very high-speed electrical signals.

While there are many commercially available optical systems, New Span has come up with an innovative way to couple light into its multichannel ribbon waveguide using a bus architecture not feasible with other interconnect systems. In a conventional system, light traveling in an optical waveguide on the main board is reflected into the plug-in module — a one-to-one connection from source to destination. A second module would require a second waveguide channel.