Flip-chip integration of tilted VCSELs onto a silicon photonic integrated circuit.

Huihui Lu,Paolo Cardile,Carmelo Scarcella,Jun Su Lee,Aidan Daly,Peter O’Brien,Yan Zhao,Lee Carroll,Markus Ortsiefer

doi:10.1364/oe.24.016258

Abstract

In this article we describe a cost-effective approach for hybrid laser integration, in which vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) are passively-aligned and flip-chip bonded to a Si photonic integrated circuit (PIC), with a tilt-angle optimized for optical-insertion into standard grating-couplers. A tilt-angle of 10° is achieved by controlling the reflow of the solder ball deposition used for the electrical-contacting and mechanical-bonding of the VCSEL to the PIC. After flip-chip integration, the VCSEL-to-PIC insertion loss is -11.8 dB, indicating an excess coupling penalty of -5.9 dB, compared to Fibre-to-PIC coupling. Finite difference time domain simulations indicate that the penalty arises from the relatively poor match between the VCSEL mode and the grating-coupler.

Highlights

The last decade has seen the emergence of silicon photonics as a potential platform for lowcost sensing and point-of-care medical applications, based on re-deploying established complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technologies, at volume, for photonic applications [1,2]
In this article we describe a cost-effective approach for hybrid laser integration, in which vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) are passively-aligned and flip-chip bonded to a Si photonic integrated circuit (PIC), with a tilt-angle optimized for opticalinsertion into standard grating-couplers
A tilt-angle of 10° is achieved by controlling the reflow of the solder ball deposition used for the electrical-contacting and mechanical-bonding of the VCSEL to the PIC

Summary

Introduction

The last decade has seen the emergence of silicon photonics as a potential platform for lowcost sensing and point-of-care medical applications, based on re-deploying established complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technologies, at volume, for photonic applications [1,2].

Results

Conclusion