ClawConnect™ Interconnects for VCSELs

PARC’s StressedMetal™ ClawConnect™ spring arrays have been combined with PARC’s leading-edge laser systems to create an ultra-dense, optoelectronic, multi-chip module.

This imager-on-a-chip combines lasers and lenses on a single substrate to allow:
-	thousands of independently addressable lasers to be packaged in a compact module— with 4-µm (micron)-wide pads on 6-µm pitch, connected to silicon CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) driver ICs (integrated circuits) with equally dense output lines;
-	optical systems to be replaced with a more compact, all solid-state light source— resulting in an optical system without mechanical moving parts.

This application is largely enabled by PARC's ClawConnect™ interconnect technology. In its efforts to develop an entire solid-state imager for laser printing, PARC created the world’s densest array of vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs), with individual lasers spaced at 3-µm pitch. No conventional technology could interconnect such densely spaced devices.

PARC scientists therefore used ClawConnect™ technology—compliant, micro-machined springs that press against the device contact pads—as interconnects for these VCSELs. The assembly process can be done at room temperature, and all contacts can be established at once. The result is a set of 200 independently addressable VCSEL laser elements, staggered at an aggregate linear pitch of one device every 3 µm.

ClawConnect™ interconnects used to connect 4-µm-wide pads or 6-µm pitch to silicon CMOS driver chips with equally dense output lines

ClawConnect™ Spring Array Solutions

• LCD Driver Interconnects—fine-pitch COG (chip-on-glass) bonding
• Wafer-Level Packaging (WLP), Burn-in, & Test—compliant, fine pitch
• Solder-Free Springs—reliable, solder-free contacts
• Stacked Packages—thinner, re-workable modules for various IC stacks
• High-Frequency Backplane Interconnects—improved signal integrity
• Probe Cards—low-cost probing
• Interconnects for VCSELs—world’s most densely packed laser array

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