Adapter plate and optical communication device

Abstract

The utility model provides an adapter plate and an optical communication device, the main body structure of the adapter plate is a glass substrate and an optical waveguide, the glass substrate is provided with one or more conductive through holes, and the conductive through holes comprise through holes penetrating through the glass substrate and conductive materials filled in the through holes. The optical waveguide is arranged in the glass substrate, and the two ends of the optical waveguide extend out of the surface of the glass substrate and are used for carrying out optical interconnection on a plurality of optical chips packaged on the adapter plate. The glass substrate has a better electrifying effect, the optical waveguide can effectively improve the coupling efficiency of optical signals and improve higher data capacity and signal quality, and optical interconnection between different optical chips can be realized without additional optical fibers, so that the packaging size can be smaller.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The utility model belongs to the technical field of semiconductor packaging, and in particular relates to a switching board and an optical communication device. Background Art

[0002] With the rapid development of technologies such as 5G, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things, people's demand for communication capacity is increasing. Optical interconnection technology, with its advantages of high speed, large capacity, and low loss, has gradually replaced electrical interconnection and become an important information transmission method for data centers.

[0003] In optical communication technology, co-packaged optical modules (CPO) are optical modules and chips packaged together to achieve the function of mutual conversion between optical signals and electrical signals in optical fiber transmission. Compared with traditional optical modules, CPO reduces the transmission distance of optical signals on circuit boards, reduces power consumption and improves signal speed and quality, which can better meet the needs of high-speed, high-efficiency, and large-scale data processing in data centers.

[0004] In the coupling between optical modules and fiber arrays, there are usually two methods: grating coupling and end-face coupling. Among them, grating coupling has the problems of low coupling efficiency and high polarization sensitivity. End-face coupling has very high requirements for alignment accuracy. At the same time, the processing flow of manufacturing microlenses to assist alignment is complex, costly, and difficult to control structural parameters, which will bring about a large error impact. Therefore, a new coupling method is needed to connect optical modules to fiber arrays. Utility Model Content

[0005] The purpose of the utility model is to solve the deficiencies in the prior art to at least a certain extent and to provide a new coupling method, thereby improving coupling efficiency and precision.

[0006] To achieve the above object, the utility model provides an adapter plate, comprising:

[0007] A glass substrate, comprising one or more conductive through holes, wherein the conductive through holes include through holes penetrating the glass substrate and conductive materials filled in the through holes;

[0008] The optical waveguide is arranged inside the glass substrate, and both ends of the optical waveguide extend out of the surface of the glass substrate, and is used to optically interconnect multiple optical chips packaged on the adapter board.

[0009] In one embodiment, the optical waveguide and the conductive via are staggered in distribution.

[0010] In one embodiment, the conductive material includes a redistribution layer at both ends of the through hole and a metal material in the middle region, and both ends of the metal material are electrically connected to the redistribution layer respectively.

[0011] In one of the embodiments, the diameter of the through hole for placing the redistribution layer is larger than the diameter of the through hole for placing the metal material.

[0012] In one embodiment, the optical waveguide has two surfaces extending out of the glass substrate at both ends, and the two surfaces are adjacent to each other.

[0013] The present application also provides an optical communication device, including the adapter board provided in any one of the above embodiments, and also including a PCB board, an optoelectronic chip assembly and an optical fiber array, the PCB board is attached to one side of the glass substrate, the optoelectronic chip assembly is attached to the other side of the glass substrate facing away from the PCB board, the optoelectronic chip is optically connected to one end of the optical waveguide in the adapter board, the optical fiber array is optically connected to the other end of the optical waveguide in the adapter board, and the PCB board supplies power to the optoelectronic chip assembly and the optical fiber array through a conductive through hole.

[0014] In one embodiment, the optoelectronic chip assembly includes an optical chip and an electrical chip, the optical chip and the electrical chip are electrically connected, the optical chip is electrically connected to the PCB board through a conductive through hole, and the optical chip is optically connected to the optical waveguide.

[0015] In one embodiment, the optical chip includes a horizontal optical connection portion and an optical coupler, the horizontal optical connection portion and the optical coupler are optically connected, and the optical coupler is aligned and coupled with the optical waveguide to achieve optical connection.

[0016] In one embodiment, an electrical element is further included. The electrical element is attached to the surface of the glass substrate, and the electrical element 7 is electrically connected to the conductive material.

[0017] In one embodiment, it further includes a plurality of electrical connection parts, each of which is a micro-bump array or a solder joint array, and is used as an electrical connection medium between the conductive material and each component.

[0018] From the above embodiments of the utility model, it can be seen that the beneficial effect of the utility model is to achieve the coupling of optical signals on the optical waveguide of the adapter board. This coupling method occupies a small area, can achieve close arrangement of optical waveguides, improve the coupling efficiency of optical modules and optical fibers, and improve the interconnection bandwidth and integration of optoelectronic co-packaging, thereby reducing the package size. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0019] In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the utility model or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings required for use in the embodiments or the description of the prior art will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the utility model. For those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without paying creative labor.

[0020] Figure 1It is a schematic diagram of the structure of an optical communication device in one embodiment of the utility model;

[0021] Figure 2 is a schematic structural diagram of an optical communication device in another embodiment of the utility model;

[0022] Figure 3 It is a schematic diagram of the connection between the adapter board, the optical chip and the optical fiber array;

[0023] Figure 4 It is a structural schematic diagram of an optical communication device in another embodiment of the utility model.

[0024] In the accompanying drawings, the various reference numerals represent: glass substrate 1, through hole 10; redistribution layer 11; optical waveguide 12; adapter board 2; electrical connection part 20; PCB board 3; electrical chip 4; optical chip 5; horizontal optical connection part 51; optical coupler 52; optical fiber array 6; electrical components 7. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0025] The embodiments of the utility model are described in detail below, and examples of the embodiments are shown in the accompanying drawings, wherein the same or similar reference numerals throughout represent the same or similar elements or elements having the same or similar functions. The embodiments described below with reference to the accompanying drawings are exemplary and are intended to be used to explain the utility model, and cannot be understood as limiting the utility model. Based on the embodiments in the utility model, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in the field without creative work are within the scope of protection of the utility model.

[0026] In the description of the present invention, it should be understood that the terms "center", "longitudinal", "lateral", "length", "width", "thickness", "up", "down", "front", "back", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "top", "bottom", "inside", "outside", "clockwise", "counterclockwise", "axial", "circumferential", "radial" and the like indicate orientations or positional relationships based on the orientations or positional relationships shown in the accompanying drawings, and are only for the convenience of describing the present invention and simplifying the description, and do not indicate or imply that the referred device or element must have a specific orientation, be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, and therefore should not be understood as a limitation on the present invention.

[0027] In addition, the terms "first" and "second" are used for descriptive purposes only and should not be understood as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of the indicated technical features. Therefore, the features defined as "first" and "second" may explicitly or implicitly include one or more of the features. In the description of the present utility model, the meaning of "plurality" is two or more, unless otherwise clearly and specifically defined.

[0028] See also Figure 1 The utility model provides an adapter board 2, the main structure of which is a glass substrate 1 and an optical waveguide 12. The glass substrate 1 has one or more conductive through holes, and the conductive through holes include a through hole 10 that penetrates the glass substrate 1 and a conductive material filled in the through hole 10. The optical waveguide 12 is arranged inside the glass substrate 1, and both ends of the optical waveguide 12 extend out of the surface of the glass substrate 1, and are used to optically interconnect multiple optical chips 5 packaged on the adapter board 2.

[0029] In the above embodiment, when the adapter board 2 encapsulates the optical chip 5, the conductive through hole can be used to connect the optical chip 5 and the power supply device to make the optical chip 5 powered on and run. Since the glass substrate 1 has high resistivity, low electrical loss, adjustable coefficient of thermal expansion and good mechanical strength, the glass substrate 1 has a better power-on effect, and the optical waveguide can effectively improve the coupling efficiency of the optical signal, improve higher data capacity and signal quality, and no additional optical fiber is required to achieve optical interconnection between different optical chips, so the package size can also be made smaller.

[0030] In the above embodiments, the material of the glass substrate 1 is generally silicon dioxide, and the glass substrate 1 may also be made of borosilicate. In another example, the glass substrate 1 may be made of quartz. Alternatively, the glass substrate 1 may be made of one or more of the following until all of them: borosilicate, aluminosilicate, and quartz including single crystal quartz and synthetic quartz. Alternatively, the glass substrate 1 may be made of any suitable alternative glass substrate material or a combination thereof. Alternatively, the substrate may be made of sapphire, silicon, zinc oxide, zirconium oxide including yttrium-stabilized zirconium oxide, ceramic or a combination thereof. In some examples, the glass substrate 1 may be lead-free, that is, it may not contain lead, lead oxide, lead alloy, lead compound and all lead components. In one example, the thermal expansion coefficient of the glass substrate 1 may be from about 0.05 ppm per degree Celsius to about 15 ppm per degree Celsius.

[0031] In the above embodiment, the through hole 10 can be formed in the glass substrate 1 by etching and electroplating. For example, one or more through holes 10 can be formed in the glass substrate 1 by laser drilling and etching, and then a conductive material layer is provided on the inner surface of the one or more through holes 10 to form the one or more conductive through holes. Specifically, for example, a bottom-up electroplating method can be used to fill the inner surface of the one or more through holes 10 with a conductive material, thereby forming a conductive through hole.

[0032] Specifically, in the above embodiment, the optical waveguide 12 is formed by inducing local glass inside the glass substrate 1 to increase the refractive index of the local glass, and has a three-dimensional network structure formed by multiple paths distributed inside the entire glass substrate 1. For example, an ultrafast (e.g., femtosecond) laser writing process can be used to create an embedded three-dimensional waveguide network inside the glass substrate 1. In this way, the optical waveguide 12 can be continuous in the glass substrate 1 without splicing in the middle, which can minimize the loss of optical signals.

[0033] In one embodiment, the optical waveguide 12 is staggered with the conductive through hole. There can be multiple optical waveguides 12 in the glass substrate 1. Staggered distribution with the conductive through hole can reduce the current influence on the optical signal during the transmission of the optical waveguide 12 and improve the accuracy of optical signal transmission.

[0034] See also Figure 1 Specifically, in one embodiment, the conductive material includes a redistribution layer 11 at both ends of the through hole 10 and a metal material in the middle region, and both ends of the metal material are electrically connected to the redistribution layer 11. The metal material is generally copper or silver, and the redistribution layer 11 is a single-layer or multi-layer electrical wiring structure, and the material is generally copper.

[0035] See also Figure 1 In one embodiment, the area diameter of the through hole 10 for placing the redistribution layer 11 is larger than the area diameter of the through hole 10 for placing the metal material.

[0036] Specifically, from Figure 1 It can be seen that the diameter of the through hole 10 at the two surfaces of the glass substrate 1 is larger than the diameter of the through hole 10 in the middle area. The large diameter through hole 10 is used to place the redistribution layer 11, thereby improving the conductivity of the redistribution layer 11, and the small diameter through hole 10 is used to place metal materials, such as copper wires. The small diameter through hole 10 is conducive to reducing the loss of current transmitted by the metal material and making the current signal more complete.

[0037] Preferably, the surfaces of the two ends of the optical waveguide 12 extending out of the glass substrate 1 are not the same surface, but may be adjacent surfaces or opposite sides. In the embodiment provided in the present application, they are adjacent surfaces. Since the adapter board 2 provided in the present application needs to be applied to an optical communication device, a PCB board 3 is installed on one side of the glass substrate 1, and the PCB board 3 will occupy the entire side of the glass substrate 1. Therefore, when the optical chip 5 and the electrical chip 4 are installed on the opposite side, the optical chip 5 needs to be optically connected to one end of the optical waveguide 12. In order not to occupy the space of this surface and to improve the utilization rate of the entire glass substrate 1, an optical fiber array 6 can be installed on the side to connect the other end of the optical waveguide 12.

[0038] participate Figure 1 and Figure 3The present application also provides an optical communication device, including the adapter board 2 provided in any of the above embodiments, and also including a PCB board 3, an optoelectronic chip assembly and an optical fiber array 6, the PCB board 3 is attached to one side of the glass substrate 1, the optoelectronic chip assembly is attached to the other side of the glass substrate 1 and is optically connected to one end of the optical waveguide 12, the optical fiber array 6 covers the surface of the glass substrate 1 and is connected to one end of the optical waveguide 12, and the PCB board 3 supplies power to the optoelectronic chip assembly and the optical fiber array 6 through the conductive through hole.

[0039] In the above embodiment, the input signal is modulated, amplified, transmitted and received through the coordinated work of the optoelectronic chip components, which not only realizes the mutual conversion of electrical signals and optical signals and the data transmission function, but also improves the capacity of optical communication, meeting the use needs of various application scenarios such as data centers and high-performance computing.

[0040] Specifically, in one embodiment, the optoelectronic chip assembly includes an optical chip 5 and an electrical chip 4, the optical chip 5 and the electrical chip 4 are electrically connected, and both the optical chip 5 and the electrical chip 4 are electrically connected to the PCB board 3 through conductive through holes.

[0041] In some other embodiments, the material of the optical chip 5 includes but is not limited to a silicon optical chip or a lithium niobate optical chip having modulation and detection functions.

[0042] In one embodiment, a plurality of electrical connection parts 20 are further included. The electrical connection parts 20 are all micro-bump arrays or solder joint arrays. The electrical connection parts 20 are used as electrical connection media between the conductive material and each component.

[0043] Specifically, one or more conductive bumps are arranged on the glass substrate 1 as electrical connection parts 20, which are electrically connected to the conductive material and the electrical components respectively. The conductive bumps can be controllable collapse chip connection bumps, ball grid array connectors, solder balls, metal pillars, micro bumps, etc. The conductive bumps can include conductive materials such as solder, copper, aluminum, gold, nickel, silver, palladium, tin, etc. or combinations thereof.

[0044] In some embodiments, the conductive bumps may be formed by first forming a solder layer by common methods such as evaporation, electroplating, printing, etc. In some embodiments, the conductive bumps are metal pillars, such as copper pillars, formed by sputtering, electroplating, chemical plating, etc.

[0045] For details, see Figure 2 In one embodiment, the optical chip 5 includes a horizontal optical connection portion 51 and an optical coupler 52, the horizontal optical connection portion 51 and the optical coupler 52 are optically connected, and the optical coupler 52 is optically connected to the optical waveguide 12, thereby improving the transmission quality and coupling accuracy of the optical signal.

[0046] After the optical chip 5 is optically connected to the optical coupler 52 through the horizontal optical connection portion 51 , the light propagates through the optical waveguide 12 and enters the optical fiber, which has a higher coupling efficiency than traditional end face coupling and grating coupling.

[0047] In the embodiments provided in the present application, the optical fiber array 6 includes but is not limited to a single-mode optical fiber array, a multi-mode optical fiber array and a multi-core optical fiber according to different application scenarios. The types of electrical chips 4 include but are not limited to drivers and TIAs. The types of optical chips 5 include but are not limited to VCSELs, PCSELs, EMLs and PDs.

[0048] Preferably, see Figure 4 In one embodiment, an electrical component 7 is also mounted on the surface of the glass substrate 1. The electrical component 7 is located on the same surface as the optical chip 5 and the electrical chip 4. An electrical connection portion 20 is provided between the electrical component 7 and the glass substrate 1. The electrical component 7 is electrically connected to the optoelectronic chip 4 component through the electrical connection portion 20 and the redistribution layer 11.

[0049] The electrical components 7 include but are not limited to capacitors, inductors and resistors. The electrical components 7 are used to meet the electrical circuit requirements of the electrical chip 4 and the optical chip 5 to enable them to work normally.

[0050] The optical communication device is designed in a hybrid packaging form of a PCB board 3, an adapter board 2, an electric chip 4, an optical chip 5, an optical fiber array 6 and an electrical component 7. The electric chip 4 and the optical chip 5 are powered by the PCB board 3 and the adapter board 2, so that the electric chip 4 and the optical chip 5 can complete the modulation, amplification, conversion and output processing of the electro-optical signal, output the optical signal through the optical fiber or transmit the electric signal to the subsequent circuit.

[0051] Compared with the prior art, the adapter plate 2 and the optical communication device of the utility model have the following beneficial effects: a glass through hole 10 is provided inside the glass, and the glass through hole 10 has excellent high-frequency electrical properties. At the same time, the glass material has good physical, thermal and mechanical properties, which ensures the stability of the glass. Femtosecond laser direct writing technology is an advanced material processing technology. It focuses femtosecond laser pulses inside the material, and produces local refractive index changes through local modifications caused by nonlinear effects, forming an optical waveguide structure. With its advantages of high precision, multi-dimensional processing, and no need for masks, femtosecond laser direct writing technology has been applied to waveguide processing, and waveguide devices such as couplers, beam splitters, modulators, and amplifiers can be prepared to improve the integration of optoelectronic packaging. The optical communication device provided in this application can achieve high-speed, high-quality, and large-capacity information transmission, meeting the use needs of various application scenarios such as data centers and high-performance computing.

[0052] In the above embodiments, the description of each embodiment has its own emphasis. For parts that are not described in detail in a certain embodiment, reference can be made to the relevant descriptions of other embodiments.

[0053] The above is a description of the technical solution provided by the utility model. For technicians in this field, according to the ideas of the embodiments of the utility model, there will be changes in the specific implementation methods and application scopes. In summary, the content of this specification should not be understood as a limitation on the utility model.

Claims

1. A transfer plate, characterized in that: include: A glass substrate, comprising one or more conductive through holes, wherein the conductive through holes include through holes penetrating the glass substrate and conductive materials filled in the through holes; An optical waveguide is arranged inside the glass substrate, and two ends of the optical waveguide extend out of the surface of the glass substrate, and is used for optically interconnecting a plurality of optical chips packaged on the adapter board.

2. The adapter plate according to claim 1, characterized in that: The optical waveguide and the conductive through hole are staggered in distribution.

3. The adapter plate according to claim 1, characterized in that: The conductive material includes a redistribution layer at both ends of the through hole and a metal material in the middle area, and both ends of the metal material are electrically connected to the redistribution layer respectively.

4. The adapter plate according to claim 3, characterized in that: The area diameter of the through hole for placing the redistribution layer is greater than the area diameter of the through hole for placing the metal material.

5. The adapter plate according to claim 1, characterized in that: There are two surfaces of the glass substrate extending from both ends of the optical waveguide, and the two surfaces are adjacent to each other.

6. An optical communication device, comprising the adapter board according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that: It also includes a PCB board, an optoelectronic chip assembly and an optical fiber array, wherein the PCB board is attached to one side of the glass substrate, the optoelectronic chip assembly is attached to the other side of the glass substrate facing away from the PCB board, the optoelectronic chip is optically connected to one end of the optical waveguide in the adapter board, the optical fiber array is optically connected to the other end of the optical waveguide in the adapter board, and the PCB board supplies power to the optoelectronic chip assembly and the optical fiber array through the conductive through hole.

7. The optical communication device according to claim 6, characterized in that: The optoelectronic chip assembly comprises an optical chip and an electrical chip, the optical chip and the electrical chip are electrically connected, the optical chip is electrically connected to the PCB board through the conductive through hole, and the optical chip is optically connected to the optical waveguide.

8. The optical communication device according to claim 7, characterized in that: The optical chip comprises a horizontal optical connection part and an optical coupler, wherein the horizontal optical connection part is optically connected to the optical coupler, and the optical coupler is aligned and coupled with the optical waveguide to achieve optical connection.

9. The optical communication device according to claim 7, characterized in that: The invention also comprises an electrical element, wherein the electrical element is attached to the surface of the glass substrate and is electrically connected to the conductive material.

10. The optical communication device according to claim 6, characterized in that: It also includes a plurality of electrical connection parts, each of which is a micro-bump array or a solder point array, and is used as an electrical connection medium between the conductive material and each component.

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