Abstract

The digitization of smart catheters will dramatically increase the demand for reliable and high data transmission in the distal tips. Optical fiber is a good candidate to provide high-speed data transmission. However, the extremely small size of the smart catheter tip, with less than a few millimeters in diameter, hampers the integration of optical fiber connections in the catheter tip. Our work presents a stand-alone optical data link module (ODLM) with a dimension of 240 µm × 280 µm × 420 µm for use in a 1 mm diameter intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) smart catheter. The fabrication of the ODLM is based on the Flex-to-Rigid (F2R) integration technology. In the ODLM, the flexible interconnects reroute the electrical contacts of the flip-chipped vertical-cavity sur-face-emitting laser (VCSEL) to the side of the device. This design enables the ODLM to be mounted on a flex-PCB and fit into a 200–300 µm gap in the IVUS catheter tip. An optical fiber that runs parallel to the catheter shaft is self-aligned to a commercially available VCSEL by inserting it into the through-silicon hole (TSH) of the ODLM. Clear eye diagrams prove the stand-alone ODLM can transmit 25.8 Gb/s, 2³¹−1 Pseudo-Random Binary Sequence (PRBS) when driven through a high-speed bias-tee. The BER test indicates that error-free operation can be achieved at an optical output of around −4 dBm.

CMOS plasmonics in WDM data transmission: 200 Gb/s (8 × 25Gb/s) transmission over aluminum plasmonic waveguides

G. Dabos, A. Manolis, S. Papaioannou, D. Tsiokos, L. Markey, J.-C. Weeber, A. Dereux, A. L. Giesecke, C. Porschatis, B. Chmielak, and N. Pleros
Opt. Express 26(10) 12469-12478 (2018)

40 Gb/s optical subassembly module for a multi-channel bidirectional optical link

Jamshid Sangirov, Gwan-Chong Joo, Jae-Shik Choi, Do-Hoon Kim, Byueng-Su Yoo, Ikechi Augustine Ukaegbu, Nguyen T. H. Nga, Jong-Hun Kim, Tae-Woo Lee, Mu Hee Cho, and Hyo-Hoon Park
Opt. Express 22(2) 1768-1783 (2014)

4 channel × 10 Gb/s bidirectional optical subassembly using silicon optical bench with precise passive optical alignment

Eun Kyu Kang, Yong Woo Lee, Sooraj Ravindran, Jun Ki Lee, Hee Ju Choi, Gun Wu Ju, Jung Wook Min, Young Min Song, Ik-Bu Sohn, and Yong Tak Lee
Opt. Express 24(10) 10777-10785 (2016)

Co-integrated 1.3µm hybrid III-V/silicon tunable laser and silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator operating at 25Gb/s

Thomas Ferrotti, Benjamin Blampey, Christophe Jany, Hélène Duprez, Alain Chantre, Frédéric Boeuf, Christian Seassal, and Badhise Ben Bakir
Opt. Express 24(26) 30379-30401 (2016)

Experimental demonstration of advanced modulation formats for data center networks on 200 Gb/s lane rate IMDD links

Jinlong Wei, Talha Rahman, Stefano Calabrò, Nebojsa Stojanovic, Liang Zhang, Changsong Xie, Zhicheng Ye, and Maxim Kuschnerov
Opt. Express 28(23) 35240-35250 (2020)