Patent Application
20220386503
The present disclosure relates to optical communication, more particularly to an optical transceiver.
Optical transceivers are generally installed in electronic communication facilities in modern high-speed communication networks. In order to make flexible the design of an electronic communication facility and less burdensome the maintenance of the same, an optical transceiver is inserted into a corresponding cage that is disposed in the communication facility in a pluggable manner. In order to define the electrical-to-mechanical interface of the optical transceiver and the corresponding cage, different form factors such as XFP (10 Gigabit Small Form Factor Pluggable) used in 10 GB/s communication rate, QSFP (Quad Small Form-factor Pluggable), or others at different communication rates have been made available.
As to the optical components in a conventional optical transceiver, a circuit board is disposed in a housing, and a TOSA (Transmitter optical sub-assembly) as well as a ROSA (Receiver optical sub-assembly) are mounted on the circuit board.
The present disclosure will become more fully understood from the detailed description given below and the accompanying drawings which are given by way of illustration only and thus are not intending to limit the present disclosure and wherein:
In the following detailed description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the disclosed embodiments. It will be apparent, however, that one or more embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are schematically shown in order to simplify the drawings.
Please refer to
The housing 10 includes an upper cover 110 and a lower cover 120 which are assembled together. The housing 10 may be configured to be inserted into a cage in pluggable manner for optical communication.
The circuit board 20 is accommodated in the housing 10, and includes a substrate 210 and a heat source 220. In this embodiment, the heat source 220 is a high power IC chip which generates a large amount of heat during its operation and the high power IC chip is mounted on the substrate 210. It is worth noting that several other components may become the heat source 220 as discussed in the present disclosure.
The optical communication module 30 may be a TOSA or a ROSA accommodated in the housing 10. The optical communication module 30 includes one or more optical communication components disposed on the substrate 210 of the circuit board 20. The optical communication component of the optical communication module 30 may be a laser diode or a photodiode electrically connected to the high power IC chip (heat source 220) of the circuit board 20.
The thermal interface material 40, for example, is a thermal pad, a thermal paste or a thermal gel accommodated in the housing 10, and the thermal interface material 40 is in physical contact with an uneven surface of the housing 10 which is discussed in more detail later. More specifically, as shown in
The thermal interface material 40 is compressed between the uneven surface 111 of the housing 10 and the heat source 220. As shown in
In this embodiment, the vertical distance H between the bottom surface 1111 of the recess 111A and the opening 1113 of the recess 111A may be less than or equal to 0.2 millimeter (mm), such that it is helpful to prevent stress concentration in the compressed thermal interface material 40. Furthermore, for a pair of adjacent recesses 111A, the pitch D of the two recesses 111A may be greater than or equal to 1 mm, such that the structure on the uneven surface 111 of the housing 10 can be fabricated by commercial CNC machine, which is helpful to mass production.
With the pressed thermal interface material 40, the compressed thermal interface material 40 enjoys better heat dissipation performance. For example, some portions of the thermal interface material 40 in the recesses 111A are slightly compressed, and some other portions of the thermal interface material 40 outside the recesses 111A can be compressed significantly. Also, compared to a conventional optical transceiver in which the thermal interface material is pressed by a flat inner surface of the housing, the lateral surfaces 1112 of each recess 111A on the uneven surface 111 of the housing 10 in this embodiment provide additional heat exchange area, which helps the heat dissipation efficiency.
The circuit board 20″ includes a substrate 210 and a heat source 220″. In this embodiment, the heat source 220″ is a thermal via in the substrate 210, and the thermal via may be a metal bar filled in a drilled through hole of the substrate 210 or a metal film coated on the inner wall of said drilled through hole. The thermal via is in thermal connection with one or more components 230 such as high power IC chip or photodiode generating a large amount of heat during its operation. The thermal interface material 40 is compressed between the uneven surface 111 of the housing 10 and the heat source 220″. The housing 10 is in thermal contact with the heat source 220″ through the thermal interface material 40.
According to the present disclosure, the housing is in thermal contact with the heat source through the thermal interface material, and the thermal interface material is in physical contact with an uneven surface of the housing. Compared to a conventional optical transceiver in which the thermal interface material is pressed by a flat inner surface of the housing, structures on the uneven surface of the housing provide additional heat exchange area, which helps the heat dissipation efficiency.
The embodiments are chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the present disclosure and its practical applications, to thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the present disclosure and various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use being contemplated. It is intended that the scope of the present disclosure is defined by the following claims and their equivalents.
