Patent ID: 8036500

Claim:
An optical communications system comprising: a motherboard comprising a substrate having an upper surface and a lower surface, the upper surface having at least two arrays of electrical contact pads disposed thereon, the substrate having electrical conductors extending through the substrate; at least two Meg-Array connector assemblies, each Meg-Array assembly comprising a Meg-Array receptacle and a Meg-Array plug that are mechanically and electrically coupled together, the lower and upper surfaces of the receptacle and the plug, respectively, having respective ball grid array (BGAs) thereon, wherein the Meg-Array connector assemblies are mounted on the upper surface of the motherboard such that the arrays of electrical contact pads on the upper surface of the motherboard are in electrical contact with the respective BGAs of the respective receptacles; and at least first and second parallel optical communications modules (POCMs), each POCM having at least a front side, a back side, a bottom side, and a top side, the POCMs being mounted on the upper surfaces of respective ones of the Meg-Array plugs such that the back side of the first POCM is in contact with or in close proximity to the front side of the second POCM with a spacing distance, D S , between the back side and front side of the first and second POCMs, respectively, that is equal to or greater than 0 millimeters (mm) and less than or equal to about 15 mm, and wherein each POCM is connected to a proximal end of a respective optical fiber ribbon cable in such a way that the respective cables exit the respective back sides of the respective POCMs.