This paper describes novel microscale electrical, optical, and fluidic interconnect networks to address off-chip
interconnect challenges in high-performance computing systems as well as to enable 3D heterogeneous integration of
CMOS and MEMS/sensors.
In an effort to address the need for robust optical chip I/O interconnects, we describe the fabrication and testing of
microscopic polymer pillars for use as a flexible optical bridge between the chip and the substrate. The polymer pillars
are photoimaged using the polymer Avatrel to a height of up to 350 &mgr;m. The photodefinable polymer Avatrel was used
for the fabrication of the optical pillars due to its ease of processing and its unique material properties that include high
Tg and low modulus. To evaluate the performance of the polymer pillars, the optical coupling efficiency from a light
source to an optical aperture with and without an optical pillar is measured. For a light source with 12o beam divergence,
a 30x150 &mgr;m polymer pillar improves the coupling efficiency by 3 to 4.5 dB compared to pillar-free (free-space) optical
coupling. Due to the high mechanical compliance of the optical pillars, we also demonstrate that polymer pillars enhance
the optical coupling efficiency between the chip and the substrate when they are misaligned in the lateral direction and
that the displacement tolerance can be doubled from 15 to 30 &mgr;m for a 1dB power loss budget.
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