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78 PCB007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2021 Article by Happy Holden I-CONNECT007 Editor's note: The original version of this arti- cle was published as a paper in 2006. This ver- sion includes updated information. High density interconnect (HDI) printed cir- cuits are now being designed in ever-increas- ing quantities for very high-speed applications. The challenge of opto-electronics and integra- tion of photonics into the printed circuit has started to take off. With photonic integrated circuits forecast to grow at a CAGR of just un- der 40% through 2025 [1] , we can expect pho- tonic circuit boards to keep pace. This paper looks at the issues, materials and current processes being researched to create this integrated OptoElectronic Circuit Board by European, Japanese and North American orga- nizations. In addition to reviewing the global players in polymer photonics, this paper will review the current programs of three groups globally: • GuideLink TM (Dupont, HP, OpticalinterLink, USA) • TOPCat (NIST, 3M, Goodyear, USA) • Truemode (Terahertz-UK) • OptoBump (NTT-JP) • JIEP (JP) * EOCB (Univ. of Ulm, Fraunhafer Inst, Daimler-Chrysler, Siemens, EU) * Terabus Project (IBM, Avago, USA) * Integrated Optical and Electronic Interconnect PCB Manufacturing (UK) • PhoxTroT: Photonics for high-performance, low-cost and low-energy data centers, high performance computing systems: Terabit/s Optical Interconnect Technologies (EU) Introduction It is difficult in this paper to expose fully all the progress and details in optical board de- velopments since 2003. A very good summary is found in the eBook, Handbook of Fiber Op- tic Data Communication: A Practical Guide to Optical Networking. Paper 26, "Optical Back- Integrated Optical Waveguides in Printed Circuits