Photonic Integrated Circuits

Οπτικά Δίκτυα Επικοινωνιών

Photonic Integrated Circuits

Planar lightwave circuits

Integrated optoelectronic devices
Wafer-scale technology on substrates (chips)
Technology limitations
Photonic Integrated Circuits - Technologies
III-V Integration Platforms

Silicon Photonics

Silica-on-Silicon - Silica glass (fused Silica)

Polymer Integration Platforms

Lithium niobate (LiNbO3)

III-V Semiconductor Technology
Ultra-wide spectral coverage… Milestones in III-V laser development
III-V material system

Advantages Disadvantages
Extensive integration approach due to
Solutions for: CMOS incompatibility
Lasers Increased propagation losses (>0.5 dB/cm)
Optical amplifiers Limitations of mass production due to small
wafers (InP)
Modulators Low index contrast (Δn/n)
Detectors
Monolithic integration of passive/active
components within fully functional chips
Ultra-high speed EO characteristics
High reliability
III-V Semiconductor Technology
III-V monolithic integration of complex devices for… Hybrid integration on Si-based platforms
(1) (2) (3) (4)
ICT-RAMPLAS
 Telecom (1)-(3)
 Datacom (5),(7)
 Sensing (4),(6)
(5) (6) (7) (8)
 Bio-Medical (8)
GaInNAs(Sb) SOAs flip-chip
Meint Smit et al, “A Generic Foundry
Model for InP-based Photonic ICs, presented at OFC, paper OM3E,
bonded on SOI
March 4-8, 2012, Los-Angeles, CA, USA

ICT-GALACTICO ICT-BOOM

GaAs -and InP-based hybrid InP SOAs bonded on Si

integration on SOI platform:
platform
Silicon Photonics: Overview

Ability to reuse the huge technology

base and supply chain from
electronics industry

Future promise
Photonic components (i.e modulators, detectors, sources) fully compatible with CMOS
technology
Photonic links may replace copper links for very short distances and co-exist with
electronics in functional optoelectronic chips
Silicon Photonics: Key characteristics
 Advantages  Disadvantages
 Low cost  Indirect bandgap material
 Take advantage of CMOS platform  No or weak electro-optic effect
 High index contrast -> strong light  Relatively lossy waveguides
confinement -> small footprint
 Lacks efficient light emission- no
 Transparent in 1.3-1.6 um region
electrically pumped Si laser
 Devices with sub-wavelength
dimensions feasible

8/12/2014 Οπτικά Δίκτυα Επικοινωνιών – Coherent Optical Systems 7

Silicon Photonics: towards silicon laser
Approach
hybrid silicon photonic integrated circuit technology
bonding of functional III-V active components onto silicon-on- InP VCSELs on SOI: ICT-MIRAGE

insulator substrates

bonding of III-V epitaxial layers

wafer or die bonding of III-V films on Si and processing thereof microdisc laser: ICT-HELIOS

hetero-epitaxial growth of III-V on Si

microdisc laser: UCSB
selectively grow III-V crystals on Si substrate

selective growth of Germanium on Si

growth of Ge layers on silicon oxide trenches
Ge laser: MIT
Glass: Overview
Main technology implementations
 silica-on-silicon  laser inscription on glass  TriPlex

How it works
Waveguiding in glass (SiO2)

Introduce dopants to create index difference (small to medium): similar material & dopants used in
optical fibers

SiO2 surrounded and encapsulated by high index Si3N4 cladding/box section

Glass: Key characteristics
 Advantages  Disadvantages
 Low propagation loss (<0.01 dB/cm) • Large modal area and bending radius: low
density integration
 Low polarization dependence
• Limited active functionalities available,
 Broad wavelength coverage (vis. to IR)
most remain in the lab (e.g. amplification)
 Low-loss coupling to single-mode fiber
• Weak thermo-optic effect: not so efficient
(less than 1 dB typical, 0.15 dB is feasible)
for λ-tuning functions
 Weak thermo-optic effect: low
• Fabrication may involve more costlier
temperature dependence processes than competitive technologies for
 Reliable material, tolerance to passive component integration (e.g.
environmental polymers)

8/12/2014 Οπτικά Δίκτυα Επικοινωνιών – Coherent Optical Systems 10

Glass: applications
Passive components
(commercial)
 WDM multiplexers
 FTTH splitters
 thermo-optic switches

Hybrid integration of complex devices

 III-Vs
 LiNbO3
 polymers
III-V integration on silica-on-silicon platform:
ICT-APACHE
Polymers: Overview

Main material systems Main types of polymer platforms

SU-8, PMMA, ZPU-12, etc Passive
Blending polymer solutions to achieve precise Electro-optic
control of material optical properties
Active
Polymers: Key characteristics
• Strengths • Weaknesses
• Low propagation loss (<0.5 dB/cm) • Low index contrast, bulky device
• Low birefringence • Not suitable for high temperature
• Precise and continuous process
engineering of material properties • Some materials raise reliability
• Unique properties (large TO, EO, issues
non-linear) • No full suite of active
• Good and easy ability to process functionalities available out of the
• Ease of hybrid integration via butt lab
coupling

8/12/2014 Οπτικά Δίκτυα Επικοινωνιών – Coherent Optical Systems 13

Polymers: Applications

Hybrid Optical/Electrical datacom PCBs

Waveguide PCB integration

Cards for optical backplane

40G and 100G communication applications

High speed Mach-Zehnder modulators

Variable optical attenuator arrays

Disruptive Technologies Overview: Plasmonics
How it works
Surface plasmons: coherent electron oscillations at a metal – Potential applications
dielectric interface
Chip-scale communications: Interconnects
Surface plasmon polaritons: plasmons excited by visible of infrared
electromagnetic waves Sensing: Biosensors, lab-on-a-chip
Localized surface plasmon resonance: collective oscillation of
electrons in nanometer-sized structures
Disruptive Technologies Overview: Photonic Crystals
How it works
Photonic Crystals (PhC): material with periodic dielectric constant in some
particular dimensions (1D, 2D, 3D)

Principle of operation: if periodicity lattice is in the order of wavelength of

light, it will reflect the light in the particular wavelength
Create range of forbidden wavelengths, called photonic bandgap, that cannot
propagate through the PhC medium

Introduce defects in lattice to trap light and create a non-TIR based waveguide

Main technology implementations

Slow light Modulators Evanescent Fiber Coupling
Waveguide Components Photonic Crystal Fibers
Disruptive Technologies Overview: Carbon-based materials
How it works
Graphene:
2-dimensional, crystalline allotrope of carbon / 1-atom thick layer of graphite

Absence of bandgap – absorbs light over wide spectral range (ultraviolet to

terahertz)

Material optical properties can be modified be externally tuning the bandgap

of graphene layers and bi-layers

Carbon nanotubes (CNT):

Allotropes of carbon with cylindrical nanostructure based on honeycomb
carbon lattice

Depending on lattice orientation, CNT acts as metal or semiconductor

Semiconductor CNTs are direct bandgap materials and can be used to

generate and detect light

Single- or multi-walled nanotube configurations are possible

Silicon Photonics
Photonic Integrated Circuits Example
Silicon Photonics Wafer Fabrication
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMgQ1-HdElM
Silicon Photonics: Design
Crossection
The transverse impression of the
integration platform
Depends on the integration
technology
Varies according to the process
flow
Can be directly imported in the
crossection simulation tools
(mode solvers)
Silicon Photonics: Design
Waveguide mode
Electric field distribution in spatially inhomogenenous structures
(waveguides)

Self-consistent during propagation

The shape of the complex amplitude profile in the transverse

dimensions must remain exactly constant

Effective index
In homogeneous transparent media, the refractive index n can be
used to quantify the increase in the wavenumber (phase change per
unit length) caused by the medium

The effective refractive index neff has the analogous meaning for light
propagation in a waveguide

Depends not only on the wavelength but also (for multimode

waveguides) on the mode in which the light propagates