Polymer-based board-level optical interconnects

This paper provides an overview of the rationale behind the significant interest in polymer-based on-board optical links together with a brief review of recently reported work addressing certain challenges in this field. Polymer-based optical links have garnered considerable research attention due to their important functional attributes and compelling cost-benefit advantages in on-board optoelectronic systems as they can be cost-effectively integrated on conventional printed circuit boards. To date, significant work on the polymer materials, their fabrication process and their integration on standard board substrates have enabled the demonstration of numerous high-speed on-board optical links. However, to be deployed in real-world systems, these optoelectronic printed circuit boards (OE PCBs) must also be cost-effective. Here, recent advances in the integration process focusing on simple direct end-fire coupling schemes and the use of low-cost FR4 PCB substrates are presented. Performance of two proof-of-principle 10 Gb/s systems based on this integration method are summarised while work in realising more complex yet compact planar optical components is outlined. © 2011 IEEE.

Industrial ecology at factory level - A conceptual model

Growing environmental concerns caused by natural resource depletion and pollution need to be addressed. One approach to these problems is Sustainable Development, a key concept for our society to meet present as well as future needs worldwide. Manufacturing clearly has a major role to play in the move towards a more sustainable society. However it appears that basic principles of environmental sustainability are not systematically applied, with practice tending to focus on local improvements. The aim of the work presented in this paper is to adopt a more holistic view of the factory unit to enable opportunities for wider improvement. This research analyses environmental principles and industrial practice to develop a conceptual manufacturing ecosystem model as a foundation to improve environmental performance. The model developed focuses on material, energy and waste flows to better understand the interactions between manufacturing operations, supporting facilities and surrounding buildings. The research was conducted in three steps: (1) existing concepts and models for industrial sustainability were reviewed and environmental practices in manufacturing were collected and analysed; (2) gaps in knowledge and practice were identified; (3) the outcome is a manufacturing ecosystem model based on industrial ecology (IE). This conceptual model has novelty in detailing IE application at factory level and integrating all resource flows. The work is a base on which to build quantitative modelling tools to seek integrated solutions for lower resource input, higher resource productivity, fewer wastes and emissions, and lower operating cost within the boundary of a factory unit. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Regenerative polymeric bus architecture for board-level optical interconnects

A scalable multi-channel optical regenerative bus architecture based on the use of polymer waveguides is presented for the first time. The architecture offers high-speed interconnection between electrical cards allowing regenerative bus extension with multiple segments and therefore connection of an arbitrary number of cards onto the bus. In a proof-ofprinciple demonstration, a 4-channel 3-card polymeric bus module is designed and fabricated on standard FR4 substrates. Low insertion losses (≤ -15 dB) and low crosstalk values (< -30 dB) are achieved for the fabricated samples while better than ± 6 μm -1 dB alignment tolerances are obtained. 10 Gb/s data communication with a bit-error-rate (BER) lower than 10-12 is demonstrated for the first time between card interfaces on two different bus modules using a prototype 3R regenerator. © 2012 Optical Society of America.

A polymeric regenerative optical bus for board-level optical interconnections

A scalable polymer waveguide-based regenerative optical bus architecture for use in board-level communications is presented. As a proof-of-principle demonstration, a 4-channel polymer bus formed on a FR4 substrate providing 10 Gb/s/channel data transmission is reported. © 2012 OSA.

Polymer waveguide-based backplanes for board-level optical interconnects

Optical interconnects are increasingly considered for use in high-performance electronic systems. Multimode polymer waveguides are a promising technology for the formation of optical backplane as they enable cost-effective integration of optical links onto standard printed circuit boards. In this paper, two different types of polymer waveguide-based optical backplanes are presented. The first one implements a passive shuffle architecture enabling non-blocking on-board optical interconnection between different cards/modules, while the second one deploys a regenerative bus architecture allowing the interconnection of an arbitrary number of electrical cards over a common optical bus. The polymer materials and the multimode waveguide components used to form the optical backplanes are presented, while details of the interconnection architectures and design of the backplanes are described. Proof-of-principle demonstrators fabricated onto low-cost FR4 substrates, including a 10-card 1 Tb/s-capacity passive shuffle router and 4-channel 3-card polymeric bus modules, are reported and their optical performance characteristics are presented. Low-loss, low-crosstalk on-board interconnection is achieved and error-free (BER10 12) 10 Gb/s communication between different card/module interfaces is demonstrated in both polymeric backplane systems. © 2012 IEEE.

4-Channel polymeric optical bus module for board-level optical interconnections

A 4-channel polymeric optical bus module suitable for use in board-level interconnections is presented. Low-loss and low-crosstalk module performance is achieved, while -1 dB alignment tolerances better than ± 8 μm are demonstrated. © 2012 OSA.

Multimode 90°-crossings, combiners and splitters for a polymer-based on-board optical bus

The design and characterization of polymer-based multimode 90°-crossings, combiners and splitters exhibiting excess losses below 0.1 dB/crossing, 2 dB and 3 dB respectively are reported. The devices enable the realization of an on-board optical bus. © 2012 OSA.

Industrial ecology at factory level: A prototype methodology

The concept of sustainable manufacturing is a form of pollution prevention that integrates environmental considerations in the production of goods while focusing on efficient resource use. Taking the industrial ecology perspective, this efficiency comes from improved resource flow management. The assessment of material, energy and waste resource flows, therefore, offers a route to viewing and analysing a manufacturing system as an ecosystem using industrial ecology biological analogy and can, in turn, support the identification of improvement opportunities in the material, energy and waste flows. This application of industrial ecology at factory level is absent from the literature. This article provides a prototype methodology to apply the concepts of industrial ecology using material, energy and waste process flows to address this gap in the literature. Various modelling techniques were reviewed and candidates selected to test the prototype methodology in an industrial case. The application of the prototype methodology showed the possibility of using the material, energy and waste resource flows through the factory to link manufacturing operations and supporting facilities, and to identify potential improvements in resource use. The outcomes of the work provide a basis to build the specifications for a modelling tool that can support those analysing their manufacturing system to improve their environmental performance and move towards sustainable manufacturing. © IMechE 2012.

ChESS - Quick and Robust Detection of Chess-board Features

Localization of chess-board vertices is a common task in computer vision, underpinning many applications, but relatively little work focusses on designing a specific feature detector that is fast, accurate and robust. In this paper the `Chess-board Extraction by Subtraction and Summation' (ChESS) feature detector, designed to exclusively respond to chess-board vertices, is presented. The method proposed is robust against noise, poor lighting and poor contrast, requires no prior knowledge of the extent of the chess-board pattern, is computationally very efficient, and provides a strength measure of detected features. Such a detector has significant application both in the key field of camera calibration, as well as in Structured Light 3D reconstruction. Evidence is presented showing its robustness, accuracy, and efficiency in comparison to other commonly used detectors both under simulation and in experimental 3D reconstruction of flat plate and cylindrical objects

Product intelligence in industrial control: Theory and practice

This paper explores the evolving industrial control paradigm of product intelligence. The approach seeks to give a customer greater control over the processing of an order - by integrating technologies which allow for greater tracking of the order and methodologies which allow the customer [via the order] to dynamically influence the way the order is produced, stored or transported. The paper examines developments from four distinct perspectives: conceptual developments, theoretical issues, practical deployment and business opportunities. In each area, existing work is reviewed and open challenges for research are identified. The paper concludes by identifying four key obstacles to be overcome in order to successfully deploy product intelligence in an industrial application. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.