Design and development of optoelectronic mixed signal system-on-package (SOP)

This paper describes the design and development of a 2.5-Gb/s optical transceiver module as a mixed signal SOP for access networks. The module development consists of concurrent design of an optoelectronic package optimizing optical, electrical, thermal, mechanical functions and optical subassembly and RFICs housed in a chip-on-board package. The optical subassembly (OSA) consists of laser and photodiode assembled on a silicon substrate. The transmit and the receiver sections are combined into a single fiber through a polymer coupler on silicon. The splitter between the transmit and receive section is realized using a polymer waveguide. The electronic ICs are assembled on a multilayer organic substrate. The package design includes optical coupling design, impedance matched transmission line design for RF signals, electrical layout design for mixed signals and thermal design for the package. The module is housed in a plastic molded nonhermetic package to achieve low cost packaging. The assembly is completed using passive alignment of optical devices and attachment of electronic devices using adhesives. In this paper, we present the details of the component design and the development of packaging process methods to achieve the design specifications, test results and process guidelines for assembly and integration.