The continuing increases in clock speed and electronic complexity of today's high performance digital systems have led to widespread investigation of new multi-technology interconnect and packaging solutions. Optical interconnects may be one such solution. Free-space optical interconnects (FSOIs) offer an evolutionary means of extending the performance of electronic technology by alleviating the communication "bottlenecks" in systems needing high speed, high density intercon- nections. Rather than concentrating the optical energy via waveguides, free-space optical interconnects use the dimension perpendicular to the planes containing the electronics, transmitters, and receivers. The enabling technologies for FSOI sys- tems include optical imaging systems, opto-mechanical packaging, two-dimensional optoelectronic (OE) device arrays, and diagnostic/test equipment.
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