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High-Speed Data Transmission Over Flexible Multimode Polymer Waveguides Under Flexure

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

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Article

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Abstract

Polymer multimode waveguides on flexible substrates enable the formation of bendable low-cost optical interconnects that can be deployed in a wide range of applications. However, the highly-multimoded nature of such guides in combination with the stress and mode mixing induced due to sample bending raise important concerns about the effect that sample flexure has on their bandwidth performance and potential to support high-speed data transmission. In this work therefore, we present data transmission studies on a 1 m long flexible spiral waveguide when flexure is applied. The flexible polymer sample is bent 180° around a cylindrical mandrel and the loss and frequency response of the waveguide are obtained for radii of curvature down to 4 mm and are compared with the performance obtained when no flexure is applied. The BER performance of the respective optical link is also recorded at data rates up to 40 Gb/s. A flat frequency response up to at least 30 GHz is demonstrated for all bending radii applied and error-free (BER<10-12) data transmission is achieved for all data rates studied up to 40 Gb/s. The results clearly demonstrate that sample flexing does not result in any significant transmission impairments in such links and highlight the strong potential of this technology for use in high-speed board-level interconnections.

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Keywords

Optical interconnects, polymer waveguides, multimode waveguides, flexible substrates, optical communications, board-level communications

Journal Title

IEEE Photonics Technology Letters

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1041-1135
1941-0174

Volume Title

30

Publisher

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Sponsorship
EPSRC (via University of Strathclyde) (115524)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/D048982/1)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/L015455/1)
CAPE OIC Future project, CAPE LEASA Project