High density integration of external optical waveguide modulators that may be used effectively at bandwidths in excess of 30 GHz is to be investigated. This requires launching microwave modulation energy to the modulation transmission line with minimum radiated energy, interconnecting the transmission line to coaxial cable in minimal space, increased isolation between signal lines of multiple modulators and better cavity mode suppression. The use of flip-chip mounting to achieve these objectives is proposed. Specific topics to be investigated are: the elimination of crosstalk, minimization of electrical return loss, optimization of velocity matching, tradeoffs between electrical crosstalk and dispersion in impedance matching, and designing simple and reliable interconnects.Anticipated benefits/potential applications:Optical communication systems can be made more cost effective. Increased performance of remote antenna links can be achieved at lower cost. Lightweight transmit/receive modules for phased-array antennas can be constructed. Optical interconnects between electronic subsystems and ISDN can be more readily achieved.
