Abstract
The interlayer coupler is one of the critical building blocks for optical interconnect based on multilayer photonic integration to realize light coupling between stacked optical waveguides. However, commonly used coupling strategies, such as evanescent field coupling, usually require a close distance, which could cause undesired interlayer crosstalk. This work presents a novel interlayer slope waveguide coupler based on a multilayer chalcogenide glass photonic platform, enabling light to be directly guided from one layer to another with a large interlayer gap (1 µm), a small footprint (6 × 1 × 0.8 µm3), low propagation loss (0.2 dB at 1520 nm), low device processing temperature, and a high bandwidth, similar to that in a straight waveguide. The proposed interlayer slope waveguide coupler could further promote the development of advanced multilayer integration in 3D optical communications systems.
Highlights
The exponential growth in data communications and computing requires scalable, high-yield, and cost-effective integrated photonic systems
Silicon (Si) photonics could be a suitable integration platform due to its unique complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) compatibility, but challenges in stacking up single crystal silicon layers impede the development of stacked multilayer silicon photonics [8]
We fabricated an interlayer slope waveguide coupler for multilayer photonic integration based on the room-temperature-deposited GSS platform
Summary
The exponential growth in data communications and computing requires scalable, high-yield, and cost-effective integrated photonic systems. Chalcogenide glasses (ChGs) are amorphous inorganic materials with unique properties such as infrared transparency, high nonlinearity, and a high refractive index Their amorphous nature enables them to be both monolithically and heterogeneously integrated with a wide variety of materials at a low deposition temperature, compatible with the COMS back-end process. The 3D waveguide design [12], using an interlayer slope waveguide coupler to directly connect the waveguides in different layers, allows a more considerable interlayer distance, a higher coupling efficiency, and a smaller footprint, making it more suitable for high-density multilayer integration. Unlike an interlayer grating coupler and an evanescent coupler, the interlayer slope waveguide coupler has an ultra-large bandwidth similar to that of a straight waveguide
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