Computer backplane employing free space optical interconnect
First Claim
1. A backplane interconnect system comprising:
- an expansion slot;
an expansion card in electrical communication with said expansion slot, said expansion card having a source of optical energy to propagate optical energy along an optical path;
a detector positioned in the optical path; and
a holographic optical element having an arcuate surface and a holographic transform function, with said optical element being disposed to filter the optical energy in accordance with properties of the holographic transform function to remove optical energy having unwanted characteristics, defining transformed optical energy, and refract the transformed energy in accordance with properties of said arcuate surface to impinge upon said detector.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Provided is an optical backplane interconnect system, one embodiment of which features transceiver subsystems employing holographic optical elements (HOEs) that define, and discriminate between, differing optical channels of communication. The HOEs employ a holograph transform to concurrently refract and filter optical energy to remove optical energy having unwanted characteristics. To that end, the transceiver subsystem is mounted to an expansion card and includes a source of optical energy and an optical detector. The HOE need not be mounted to the expansion cared. In one embodiment, however, the HOE is mounted to the expansion card and in optical communication with either the source of optical energy, the optical detector or both.
-
Citations
20 Claims
-
1. A backplane interconnect system comprising:
-
an expansion slot;
an expansion card in electrical communication with said expansion slot, said expansion card having a source of optical energy to propagate optical energy along an optical path;
a detector positioned in the optical path; and
a holographic optical element having an arcuate surface and a holographic transform function, with said optical element being disposed to filter the optical energy in accordance with properties of the holographic transform function to remove optical energy having unwanted characteristics, defining transformed optical energy, and refract the transformed energy in accordance with properties of said arcuate surface to impinge upon said detector. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 20)
-
-
11. A backplane interconnect system comprising:
-
first and second expansion slots;
a first expansion card in electrical communication with said first expansion slot, said first expansion card having a first array of optical emitters to generate optical energy to propagate along a plurality of axes and a first array of optical receivers;
a second expansion card in electrical communication with said second expansion slot, said second expansion card having a second array of optical emitters to generate optical energy to propagate along a plurality of paths, and a second array of optical receivers, each of which is positioned to sense optical energy propagating along one of the plurality of optical axes, with the optical receivers of said first optical array positioned to sense optical energy propagating along said plurality of paths; and
a holographic optical element including a plurality of lens elements, each of which has a holographic transform function recorded therein, defining a plurality of holographic transform functions, each of said plurality of detectors being associated with one of said plurality of holographic transform functions, with the holographic transform function associated with one of said plurality of detectors differing from the holographic transform functions associated with the remaining detectors of said plurality of detectors. - View Dependent Claims (12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19)
-
-
17. A backplane interconnect system comprising:
-
first and second expansion slots;
a first expansion card in electrical communication with said first expansion slot, said first expansion card having a first array of optical emitters to generate optical energy to propagate along a plurality of axes and a first array of optical receivers;
a second expansion card in electrical communication with said second expansion slot, said second expansion card having a second array of optical emitters to generate optical energy to propagate along a plurality of paths, and a second array of optical receivers, each of which is positioned to sense optical energy propagating along one of the plurality of optical axes, with the optical receivers of said first optical array positioned to sense optical energy propagating along said plurality of paths, with the optical emitters of said first and second arrays comprising semiconductor lasers and the optical receivers of said first and second array comprising charge injection devices; and
a holographic optical element including a plurality of lens elements, each of which has a bulk holographic transform function recorded throughout a volume thereof, defining a plurality of holographic transform functions, each of said plurality of detectors being associated with one of said plurality of holographic transform functions, with the holographic transform function associated with one of said plurality of detectors differing from the holographic transform functions associated with the remaining detector of said plurality of detectors.
-
Specification