Backplane assembly with board to board optical interconnections
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsFerenc M. Bozso, Philip G. Emma
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An electronic system with components communicating over optical channels, a board initialization and continuity check and a method of transferring data over the optical channels. The system include a backplane with board to board signal wiring and a shared optical bus. Optical gratings are attached to the backplane and to circuit boards to pass optical energy between an optical transceiver and board/backplane. An optical transceiver at each end of each optical jumper relays optical signals between the optical jumpers and the connected circuit board or the backplane. Optical jumpers optically connect the circuit boards to the backplane.
Claims51
An electronic system comprising:
- a backplane with board to board signal wiring and a shared optical bus;
- a plurality of circuit boards with electronic components mounted thereon attached to said backplane;
- a plurality of optical jumpers, each of said plurality of optical jumpers optically coupling one of said plurality of boards to said backplane;
- and
- an optical transceiver at each end of each optical jumper relaying optical signals from said optical jumpers to a respective one of said backplane or one of said plurality of boards.
A multidrop backplane with board to board signal wiring and a sharable optical bus, said multidrop backplane comprising:
- a plurality of optical wave guides in a board mounting surface, each of said wave guides being an optical wiring channel in said sharable optical bus;
- and
- a plurality of optical grating structures attached to said board mounting surface, optically connected to corresponding ones of said optical wave guides and identifying board tap points on said board mounting surface.
An optical grating structure tapered at either end and comprising:
- an layer of optically transmissive material having a selected optical index;
- a material at said either end having an optical index below the selected optical index;
- a grating in said layer passing a portion of optical energy from one surface to an other surface;
- and
- a pair of mirrors in said layer angled directing incident optical energy passing from said one surface to said other surface in opposite directions along said other surface and away from said grating.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.