Chair:  Jack Fisher, iNEMI/IPC consultant

This iNEMI project is investigating the cost of copper vs. optoelectronic printed wiring boards (PWBs).  Their objective is to determine at what bandwidth and for which applications optoelectronic technology becomes cost-competitive with copper.  Industry can benefit from optical/electrical cost models and a better understanding of the significant cost contributors.  Toward that end, the team is modeling and comparing copper and optical boxes.  Specifications for the four boxes were developed in 2004, and the group began developing cost inputs for the model.  In 2005, cost model inputs were defined and revised and significant efforts were focused on the alternative waveguide technologies.

Final Report

  2006 iNEMI Optoelectronic Substrates Project Report, November 2, 2006

Presentations

Roadmap for Optical Backplanes:  A Copper vs Opto Business Analysis, Jack Fisher (Interconnect Technology Analysis), HSD Workshop on Interconnections within High Speed Digital Systems, sponsored by IEEE Laser & Electro-Optics Society (LEOS), May 14-17, 2006 (Santa Fe, NM).  A shortened version of this information was also presented at the 7th Jisso International Council Meeting, May 22-24, 2006 (Berlin, Germany).
     Presentation (PDF)
     Waveguide comparison (PDF)
     Reliability & performance tables (PDF)

iNEMI Cost/Performance Analysis for Optical and Copper High-speed Backplanes, presented by Adam Singer, Cookson Electronics, APEX 2005, February 22, 2005 (Anaheim, CA).

NEMI Cost Analysis: Optical vs. Copper Backplanes (Part 1: Benchmarking Copper), presented by Adam Singer, Cookson Electronics, for Jack Fisher, APEX 2004, February 26, 2004 (Anaheim, CA).

Additional resources

   Electrical/Optical Cost Model Using a 10Gb/s Star Architecture (a presentation by Teradyne)

   iNEMI cost model (Excel file)