Georgia Institute of Technology Packaging Research Center An NSF Engineering Research Center Leading the SOP & Nano Packaging Paradigms in Partnership with Global Industry
	e-newsletter Vol. 1, Issue 3 – April 2004

PRC Pushes Frontiers in Chip-to-Chip Optoelectronics by Embedded Components in Organic Packages and Boards

System–on–Package (SOP) at the PRC is about integration and miniaturization of components with two or more systems functions at higher performance and lower cost. The optoelectronics part of SOP at the PRC, therefore, includes embedding of lasers, waveguides, detectors, gratings, mirrors, splitters and couplers. Unlike most optoelectronics research elsewhere, the PRC focuses on integration of chip-chip optoelectronics in organic boards, or packages. The optoelectronic team at the PRC consists of 5 faculty, 10 graduate students and 4 engineers.

Enabling Optoelectronics Technologies

PRC Solves Surface Roughness Problem with FR-4 for Integrating Optical Lightwave Circuits
The enabling technology for implementing lightwave circuits on inexpensive printed wiring boards is the formation of a buffer layer which serves two functions: (1) it provides a planar and smooth surface for waveguide fabrication to minimize waveguide scattering losses, and (2) it provides a transition layer for strain relaxation due to the CTE mismatch between the embedded metallurgy and the waveguide layer to enhance thermal reliability. The buffer layer, is formed by a multi layer meniscus and/or spin-coating process consisting of an epoxy-based polymer. After final curing, the buffer layer reaches an average local surface roughness less than 18 nm.

PRC Embeds Active Optoelectronic Devices in Printed Wiring Boards
PRC developed a method for embedding commercially available, bare-die photodiodes, Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSEL)s, Edge Emitting Lasers (EEL)s and PiN phtotodiodes on PWBs. The laser diode and the photodetector are solder bonded to the board, a buffer layer is formed and polymer waveguides are integrated between the emitter and the detector to create an high speed optical link. The near term objective of the research projective is to demonstrate fully integrated, 10GHz/channel operation over 12 channels, for an aggregated bandwidth of 120GHz bandwidth.

PRC Demonstrates Low Loss Polymer Waveguide Integration on PWB
A low loss polymer waveguide process has been developed at the PRC. All waveguides are formed from Siloxane based polymers by means of photo-initiated cross linking. The waveguide core and cladding have a refractive index contrast of 0.03. The measured propagation loss of a multimode channel waveguide with a dimension of 50?m wide and 20 ?m tall is 0.24dB/cm at 1331nm, and 0.52dB/cm at 1550 nm.

PRC Develops Out–of–Plane Beam Turning Elements on PWB
Blazed surface relief gratings are important wavelength sensitive components that can be used for wavelength-selective coupling into and out of a waveguide. PRC has developed a simple and effective process for fabricating surface relief gratings on polymers. The fabrication process use only incoherent illumination to achieve polymer grating structures having 250 lines /mm and a blaze angle of 36o with respect to the surface normal.

PRC Focuses on Improving Microsystem Reliability
Reliability of optoelectronic components is of great concern particularly if they are made of organic polymer materials which absorb water. Accelerated thermal and optical aging are critical tests for choosing a viable optical waveguide polymer and polymer fabrication processes.

Retardation Measurement Techniques for the Accurate Birefringence Characterization of Optical Interconnects
Stress-induced birefringence in optical waveguides impacts the quality, reliability and transmission characteristics of optical interconnects. The birefringence distribution can be quantified by measuring the retardation of a beam transversely illuminating the device. This research deals with the investigation of new techniques to accurately measure the stress-induced birefringence in optical waveguides.

Modeling, Optimization, Design, Fabrication, and Characterization of Grating Couplers for Waveguide-based Optical Interconnection
The goal is to analyze, design, demonstrate and optimize grating couplers for coupling between waveguides and chips. Two approaches are pursued: surface-relief gratings, and holographic gratings. In the first approach, the gratings are recorded directly on the waveguide core or thin cladding. In the second approach, the Bragg grating holograms are recorded within the core volume or within the cladding volume.

Advanced Ongoing Optoelectronics Research

Photonic Crystal Research
Photonic crystal lightwave networks are essential in future optoelectronic integration on the processor chip itself. Simulation and fabrication of photonic crystal structures are the focus of the Photonics Lab at Georgia Tech.

PRC Embarks on VCSEL Development
Semiconductors include triethlygallium, trimethylindium, trimethlyaluminum, (bis)cyclopentadienyl magniesium, tertiarybutylarsine, diethylzinc, We are now in the final stages of setting up the new metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) reactor that will be used for the growth of the GaAsSbN-based vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs). This system has several advanced features, including the use of pyrometer-based temperature balancing, ultra-fast gas switching, and multiple primary sources of Ga, In, and Al. The system is now calibrated for temperature uniformity and for accurate temperature readouts. The system has a capacity for seven 2.0 in. diameter wafers. Sources for the growth of III-Vand tertiarybutylhydrazine.

We expect to develop the GaAsSbN materials system for the quantum-well active region of a long-wavelength VCSEL. The approach will employ strain-compensation in the quantum-well barriers to provide a low-defect, strain-balanced active region.

PRC Optoelectronics Facilities

In an effort to assist industry researchers, students and other groups with their testing and research & development needs, the Packaging Research Center wishes to open its doors for contracted lab and equipment rental. Rates are reasonable. The equipment listed below is particularly appropriate for optoelectronics research:

If you are interested or have questions regarding the use of the PRC’s labs and facilities, please feel free to contact us:

Georgia Tech Packaging Research Center
813 Ferst Drive, N.W.
Atlanta, Georgia U.S.A.
+1-404-894-9097
Dean.Sutter@ece.gatech.edu

Recent Optoelectronics Publications

Papers
J. Yu and G. K. Chang, “A Novel technique for optical label and payload generation and multiplexing using optical carrier suppression and separation,” IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, Vol. 16, No.1, pp.320-323, 2004.

J. Yu and G. K. Chang, “Generation and transmission of eight-channel DWDM signals with 10Gbit/s payload and 2.5 Gbit/sd labels over 200 km SMF-28,” IEEE Electronics Letters, Vol. 40, No. 2, pp.135-136, 2004.

G. K. Chang and J. Yu, “40Gbit/s payload and 2.5Gbit/s label generation by using optical carrier suppression and separation,” accepted by IEEE Electronics Letters, March, 2004.

O. Momtahan and A. Adibi, “Global optimization of sensitivity and M/# for two-center holographic recording,” Journal of Optical Society of America B, vol. 20, pp. 449-461, 2003.

H. Pishro-Nik, N. Rahnavard, J. Ha, F. Fekri, and A. Adibi, “Low-density parity-check codes for volume holographic memory systems,” Applied Optics, vol. 42, pp. 861-870, 2003.

Y. Yang, A. Adibi, and D. Psaltis, “Comparison of transmission and the 90-degree holographic recording geometry,” Applied Optics, vol. 42, pp. 3418-3427, 2003.

S. Khorasani and A. Adibi, “New analytical approach for computation of band structure in one-dimensional periodic media,” Optics Communications, vol. 216, pp. 439-451, 2003.

N. Wu, M. Soltani, B. Momeni, M. Javanmard, A. Adibi, Y. Xu, and R. K. Lee, “General methods for designing single-mode planar photonic crystal waveguides in hexagonal lattice structures,” Optics Express, vol. 11, pp. 1371-1377, 2003.

S. Khorasani and A. Adibi, "Approximate analysis and design of rectangular-lattice photonic crystals,” accepted for publication in Optics Letters, vol. 11, pp. 1472-1474, 2003

S. Khorasani and A. Adibi, “Analytical solution of linear ordinary differential equations by differential transfer matrix method,” Electronics Journal of Differential Equations, vol. 2003, No. 79, pp. 1-18, 2003.

B. Momeni and A. Adibi, “Optimization of photonic crystal demultiplexers based on superprism effect,” Applied Physics B, vol. 77, pp. 555-560, 2003.

M. Soltani, A. Adibi, Y. Xu, and R. K. Lee, “Design of single-mode coupled reflector optical waveguides,” Optics Letters, vol. 25, pp. 1978-1980, 2003.

Z. Xu, Z. Wang, M. E. Sullivan, D. J. Brady, S. H. Foulger, and A. Adibi, “Multiplex spectroscopy using photonic crystals,” Optics Express, vol. 11, pp. 2126-2133, 2003.

A. Jafarpour, A. Adibi, Y. Xu, and R. K. Lee, “Bi-periodic photonic crystal waveguides,” Physical Review B, vol. 68, pp. 233102 (1-4), 2003.

E. Anemogiannis, E. N. Glytsis, and T. K. Gaylord, “Transmission characteristics of long-period fiber gratings having arbitrary azimuthal/radial refractive-index variations,” Journal of Lightwave Technology, vol. 21, pp. 218-227, 2003.

N. Imam, E. N. Glytsis, T. K. Gaylord, K. K. Choi, P. G. Newman, and L. D. Detter-Hoskin, "Quantum well infrared photodetector structure synthesis methodology and experimental verification," IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics, vol. 39, pp. 468-477, 2003.

E. N. Glytsis, N. M. Jokerst, R. A. Villalaz, S. Y. Cho, S. D. Wu, Z. Huang, M. A. Brooke, and T. K. Gaylord, “Substrate-embedded and flip-chip-bonded photodetector polymer-based optical interconnects: Analysis, design, and performance,” Journal of Lightwave Technology, vol. 20, pp. 2382-2394, 2003.

M. S. Bakir, T. K. Gaylord, K. P. Martin, and J. D. Meindl, “Sea of polymer pillars: Compliant wafer-level electrical-optical chip I/O interconnections,” IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, vol. 15, pp. 1567-1569, 2003.

B. L. Bachim and T. K. Gaylord, “Polarization-dependent loss and birefringence in long-period fiber gratings,” Applied Optics, vol. 42, pp. 6816-6823, 2003.

M. S. Bakir, T. K. Gaylord, O. O. Ogunsola, E. N. Glytsis, and J. D. Meindl, “Optical transmission of polymer pillars for chip I/O optical interconnections,” IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, vol. 16, pp. 117-119, 2004.

T. K. Gaylord and G. R. Kilby, “Optical single-angle plane-wave transmittances/reflectances from Schwarzschild-objective variable-angle measurements,” Review of Scientific Instruments, vol. 75, pp. 317-323, 2004.

M. I. Braiwish, B. L. Bachim, and T. K. Gaylord, “Prototype CO2-laser-induced long-period fiber grating variable optical attenuators and optical tunable filters,” Applied Optics, vol. 43, pp. 1789-1793, 2004.

A. Jafarpour, A. Adibi, Y. Xu, and R. K. Lee, “A new method for the calculation of dispersion in an arbitrary photonic crystal waveguide,” submitted to IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics, December 2003.

A.Grot, E.Chow, L.W. Mirkarimi, M. Sigalas, W. T. Lau, S. H. Fan, A. Jafarpour, C. M. Reinke, and A. Adibi, “Experimental evaluation of photonic crystal waveguides for optical interconnects,” submitted to IEEE Journal of Lightwave Technology, December 2003.

Edited Proceedings Book
Photonic Crystal Materials and Devices by A. Adibi, A. Scherer, and S.-Y. Lin, editors, Proceedings of SPIE, vol. 5000, 2003.

3S Electronics Workshop at Georgia Tech — PRC Proposes the First International Workshop on SOP, SIP, SOC Technologies

October 21 & 22, 2004 • Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA, USA
This workshop reviews the latest R&D and manufacturing status of each of the SOP, SIP and SOC technologies around the world. Technical sessions are organized to review status as well compare and contrast SOP from 3D stacking SIP, MCM and SOC.

For more information please visit www.prc.gatech.edu/news_events/3S/2004/index.htm.

Titles and abstracts are accepted until June 15 and July 15, respectively, and should be submitted to wlp@ece.gatech.edu.

The PRC, In Partnership with the IEEE-CPMT Society and NEMI, Organized the First International Workshop on Nano and Bio-electronics Packaging

The workshop was held on March 22-23, 2004 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Atlanta, GA. Over 80 U.S. and international attendees from academia, industry and national laboratories participated. The workshop was chaired by Prof. Rao R. Tummala and the agenda included one plenary and five technical sessions.

The plenary session was devoted to keynote speakers from academia, government and industry. Dr. Meyya Meyyappan, Director of the Center of Nanotechnology at NASA; presented growth of vertically aligned carbon nano tubes and its application to interconnects, biosensors and vision chip. He also talked about 1-D Nanostructures such as inorganic nanowires and their potential for device development such as nanowire based vertical transistors. Dr. Neal Shinn, Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT) at Sandia National Labs; briefed attendees on CINT research and education programs and presented the ongoing research efforts in the area of nanoelectronics/photonics, nanomechanics and nano/bio/micro interfaces. Prof. Buddy Ratner, Director, Engineered Biomaterials Research Center, University of Washington; presented current and future applications or nanotechnology to tissue engineering and medical implants. Dr. Iwona Turlik and Marc Chason of Motorola; presented opportunities in nanotechnology and industry trends. A good portion of the presentation focused on nano materials and multifunctional composites for electronics industry as well as future application opportunities and current Motorola activities. Prof. Mark Humayun, Director, Biomimetic Micro Electronics System Center, University of Southern California, presented an overview of biological applications with a focus to microelectronic retinal implants.

Technical sessions, chaired by internationally recognized scientists and engineers, explored recent developments, trends and applications in nano bio-packaging, nano photonics, nano imprint and manufacturing, and NEMS and fluidics. The formal workshop program concluded with a wrap-up session soliciting feedback from the attendees. The workshop adjourned with a decision to organize the next workshop in March 2005, in Atlanta.

For more information about the workshop please visit the web site: www.prc.gatech.edu/nanobiopack/index.htm.

PRC to Present Record 39 Papers at ECTC

Faculty, staff, and students from the Packaging Research Center will present a record thirty nine technical papers at ECTC — the world's premier electronic packaging conference. Papers will cover all topics related to the Center's vision of system-on-package (SOP) including power and signal integrity, EMI, advanced organic micro-via substrates with embedded passives, embedded RF and optical components, wafer-level packaging with nano-interconnects and reliability modeling. ECTC (Electronic Components & Technology Conference) 2004 will be held in Las Vegas on June 1-4. PRC welcomes its friends and colleagues to visit its booth at ECTC to obtain latest information about its research, educational and industry partnership programs.

Open House Seeks to Benefit Industry through Research Seminars and Collaboration Programs

The Packaging Research Center is pleased to invite industry visitors to the Georgia Tech campus on Wednesday, June 16, 2004 to learn new packaging research trends and technologies being pursued by the Center and explore ways in which research collaboration programs may benefit them. An “open house” will feature PRC’s research highlights in Next Generation of MicroSystems Packaging Technologies.” Detailed breakout sessions will describe the PRC’s research focus in embedded RF, optoelectronics, digital systems packaging, as well as wafer-level packaging and assembly, and center-wide system-on-package (SOP) research. Presentations will be tailored to technical managers, leaders, and executives from industry’s research & development departments. Following the breakout session will be a tour of the PRC’s laboratories and facilities. For further information, updated program agenda and online registration, please visit the PRC home page at: www.prc.gatech.edu.

International Collaboration between PRC and Singapore Further Advances Nano Wafer Level Packaging (NWLP) Approaches

The semiconductor industry is rapidly advancing into the nano realm by achieving chips with less than 0.1 micron features. Some of these chips will have several hundred million transistors, requiring I/Os in excess of 10,000, power in excess of 200 Watts, and providing computing speed in terabits per second, thereby, creating significant packaging challenges. An international research and education collaboration between Georgia Tech’s Packaging Research Center (PRC), the Institute of Microelectronics (IME) – Singapore, and the National University of Singapore (NUS) is jointly focuses on the research and development of packaging approaches for these “nano chips.” Further information found at serve.me.nus.edu.sg/nano-wlp/.

Professor Swaminathan Named as Deputy Director of PRC

Dr. Madhavan Swaminathan, a Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech was recently named as the Deputy Director of PRC by the Director Prof. Rao Tummala. Dr. Swaminathan joined Georgia Tech in 1994 and has been leading the design effort at PRC since its inception. Prof. Swaminathan’s primary focus is on the design, modeling, characterization and test of interconnections for Digital, RF, Optical and Mixed Signal Systems.

Prof. Swaminathan received a B.E. degree in electronics and communication from the University of Madras in 1985, and received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Syracuse University in 1989 and 1991, respectively. Prior to joining Georgia Tech, he was with the Advanced Packaging Laboratory at IBM working on packaging for super computers.

Dr. Swaminathan has over 150 publications in refereed journals and conferences, has co-authored 3 book chapters, has nine issued patents and has nine patents pending. He has chaired and has been the co-founder of many workshops and conferences sponsored by IEEE and IMAPS. He has also served as the associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Components and Packaging Technologies. He is the co-founder of Jacket Micro Devices, a company specializing in integrated passive devices for RF applications, where he serves as the Chief Scientist.

Dr. Swaminathan is the recipient of the 2002 Outstanding Graduate Research Advisor Award from the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Tech and the 2003 Outstanding Faculty Leadership Award for the advisement of GRAs from Georgia Tech. He is also the recipient of the 2003 Presidential Special Recognition Award from IEEE CPMT Society for his leadership of TC-12. He has also served as the co-author for a number of outstanding student paper awards at EPEP ’00, EPEP ’02, EPEP ’03, ECTC ’98 and the 1997 IMAPS Education Award and is the recipient of the Shri. Mukhopadyay best paper award at the International Conference on Electromagnetic Interference and Compatibility in 2003.

The PRC staff wishes to formally welcome Dr. Swaminathan to the center.

PRC Welcomes Prof. Russ Dupuis, Recipient of the National Medal of Technology

Russell D. Dupuis, Professor
Steve W. Chaddick Endowed Chair in Electro-Optics, Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar
Microelectronics / Microsystems Group

After earning the doctoral degree from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1973, Dr. Russell D. Dupuis worked at Texas Instruments from 1973 to 1975, and at Rockwell International from 1975 to 1979 where he was the first to demonstrate that MOCVD could be used for the growth of high-quality semiconductor thin films and devices. He joined AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1979 where he extended his work to the growth of InP-InGaAsP by MOCVD. In 1989 he became a chaired professor at the University of Texas at Austin. In August 2003, he accepted a chaired professorship with ECE of Georgia Institute of Technology. He is currently studying the growth of III-V compound semiconductor devices by MOCVD, including materials in the InAlGaN/GaN, InAlGaAsP/GaAs, InAlGaAsSb, and InAlGaAsP/InP systems.

Prof. Dupuis most recently received the National Medal of Technology Laureate in 2002, and the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (TMS) John Bardeen Award in 2004.

Farewell to Visiting Industry Engineer from Hitachi Chemical

Nobuyuki Ogawa (left), visiting industry engineer, and Professor Gee-Kung Chang pose in a farewell photo. Mr. Ogawa has been with the PRC for one year performing leading-edge optoelectronics research and taking packaging courses and is returning to Hitachi Chemicals.

Prof. Chang is Byers Eminent Scholar Chair in Optical Networking in the Optics & Telecommunications Group, and is the Optical Alliance leader in PRC.

Georgia Institute of Technology Packaging Research Center
- An NSF Engineering Research Center -
Leading the SOP & Nano Packaging Paradigms in Partnership with Global Industry

For further info, please visit: http://www.prc.gatech.edu

PH: 404-894-9097, FAX: 404-894-3842 • 813 Ferst St., MaRC Bldg. 351 • Atlanta, GA 30332-0560

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