Abstract: Glass-based micropositioning systems and methods are disclosed. The micropositioning systems and methods utilize microbumps (40) formed in a glass substrate (12 or 100). The microbumps are formed by subjecting a portion of the glass substrate to localized heating, which results in local rapid expansion of glass where the heat was applied. The height and shape of the microbumps depend on the type of glass substrate and the amount and form of heat delivered to the substrate. The microbumps allow for active or passive micropositioning of optical elements, including planar waveguides and optical fibers. Optical assemblies formed using microbump micropositioners are also disclosed.

Abstract: A method and system for reducing arbitration latency employs speculative transmission (STX) without prior arbitration in combination with routing fabric scheduled arbitration. Packets are sent from source locations to a routing fabric through scheduled arbitration, and also through speculative arbitration, to non-contentiously allocate outputs that were not previously reserved in the routing fabric to the speculatively transmitted packets.