SiOC-Coated Silicon Nitride Platform for Efficient Phase Actuators

Faisal Ahmed Memon,Nasrullah Pirzada,Abdul Latif Memon,Erum Saba,Zafi Sherhan Syed,Imran Ali Qureshi

doi:10.3390/coatings10040309

Faisal Ahmed Memon, Nasrullah Pirzada + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings10040309

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Abstract

In this paper, integration of silicon oxycarbide (SiOC) and silicon nitride (Si3N4) platforms was demonstrated to realize ultra-efficient thermal tuning of photonic integrated circuits. Si3N4 being a fascinating photonic material with moderate refractive index (n ≈ 2) and ultra-low loss, lacks thermo-optic coefficient that makes thermal phase actuators long and dissipate high powers. Integration of SiOC coating with a comparable refractive index (n = 2.2) boosts the effective thermo-optic efficiency of Si3N4 photonic circuits by almost an order of magnitude with no additional loss. An SiOC layer was deposited by the reactive RF magnetron sputtering technique from the SiC target at room temperature. The structural, chemical and optical characterizations of the sputter deposited SiOC layer were performed with SEM, AFM, EDS and spectroscopic ellipsometry. The results of SiOC-coated Si3N4 and pristine Si3N4 photonic devices were discussed and compared. SiOC was demonstrated as an enabling platform for low-loss and power-efficient thermal phase actuators in conventional photonic technologies with application in reconfigurable photonic systems.

Highlights

Silicon photonic integration has advanced significantly in the past decades and is perceived to take advantage of the complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) industry [1,2]
The large footprint of thermal tuners is contrary to the spirit of photonic integrated circuits (PICs) that
Taking the advantages of high thermo-optic coefficient of silicon oxycarbide (SiOC) and well-matured low-loss Si3 N4, we propose integration of SiOC

Summary

Introduction

Silicon photonic integration has advanced significantly in the past decades and is perceived to take advantage of the complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) industry [1,2]. Silicon nitride (Si3 N4 ) is an attractive material for its moderately high refractive index (n ≈ 2 at λ = 1550 nm) and low absorption coefficient (< 1 dB/m) in the visible and near-IR spectral regions [5,6]. Thermo-optic effect in Si3 N4 is low, in the order of 10−5 ◦ C−1 , and requires long and wide thermal tuners with large power dissipation [9]. The large footprint of thermal tuners is contrary to the spirit of PICs that

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