Complex Photonic Integrated Circuits Research Articles

Accelerating finite-difference frequency-domain simulations of inverse designed structures in nanophotonics using deep learning

The inverse design of nanophotonic devices is becoming increasingly relevant for the development of complex photonic integrated circuits. Electromagnetic first-order simulations contribute to the overwhelming computational cost of the optimization routines in established inverse design algorithms, requiring more efficient methods for enabling improved and more complex design process flows. Here we present such a method to predict the electromagnetic field distribution for pixel-discrete planar inverse designed structures using deep learning. Our model is able to infer accurate predictions used to initialize a conventional finite-difference frequency-domain algorithm and thus lowers the average time required for simulating the electromagnetic response of nanophotonic device layouts by up to 53% in iterative design process flows. We demonstrate the applicability of our deep learning method for the inverse design of photonic integrated powersplitters and mode converters, and we highlight the possibility of exploiting previous learning results in subsequent design tasks of novel functionalities via fine-tuning reduced data sets, thus improving computational speed further.

Passive wavelength selective polarization rotator in a hybrid waveguide platform

Polarization rotation and wavelength filtering are key functionalities used to build complex photonic integrated circuits. Both these functionalities have been demonstrated in various material and device platforms. We propose, for the first time, a fully passive wavelength selective polarization rotation in silicon nitride/amorphous silicon hybrid waveguide. We demonstrate TE0 → TM0 and TM0 → TE0 wavelength selective polarization rotator-cum-filter with a measured 3dB bandwidth of 14.8 nm. Further, we experimentally demonstrate a proof of concept for simultaneous coarse wavelength division multiplexing and polarization rotation for the first time in a passive configuration. We also show the feasibility of bandwidth engineering from 0.59 nm to 81 nm, enabled by the unique flexibility of the proposed hybrid waveguide.

Tunable double notch filter on a thin-film lithium niobate platform.

Tunable optical filters at the chip scale play a crucial role in fulfilling the need for reconfigurability in channel routing, optical switching, and wavelength division multiplexing systems. In this Letter, we propose a tunable double notch filter on thin-film lithium niobate using dual microring architecture. This unique integrated filter is essential for complex photonic integrated circuits, along with multiple channels and various frequency spacing. With only one loaded voltage, the device demonstrates a wide frequency spacing tunability from 16.1 to 89.9 GHz by reversely tuning the resonances of the two microrings while the center wavelength between the two resonances remains unaltered. Moreover, by utilizing the pronounced electro-optic properties of lithium niobate associated with the tight light confined nanophotonic waveguides, the device demonstrates a spacing tunability of 0.82 GHz/V and a contrast of 10-16 dB. In addition, the device has an ultracompact footprint of 0.0248 mm2.

Library of single-etch silicon nitride grating couplers for low-loss and fabrication-robust fiber-chip interconnection

Silicon nitride (Si3N4) waveguides become an appealing choice to realize complex photonic integrated circuits for applications in telecom/datacom transceivers, sensing, and quantum information sciences. However, compared to high-index-contrast silicon-on-insulator platform, the index difference between the Si3N4 waveguide core and its claddings is more moderate, which adversely affects the development of vertical grating-coupled optical interfaces. Si3N4 grating couplers suffer from the reduced strength, therefore it is more challenging to radiate all the waveguide power out of the grating within a beam size that is comparable to the mode field diameter of standard optical fibers. In this work, we present, by design and experiments, a library of low-loss and fabrication-tolerant surface grating couplers, operating at 1.55 μm wavelength range and standard SMF-28 fiber. Our designs are fabricated on 400 nm Si3N4 platform using single-etch fabrication and foundry-compatible low-pressure chemical vapor deposition wafers. Experimentally, the peak coupling loss of − 4.4 dB and − 3.9 dB are measured for uniform couplers, while apodized grating couplers yield fiber-chip coupling loss of − 2.9 dB, without the use of bottom mirrors, additional overlays, and multi-layered grating arrangements. Beside the single-hero demonstrations, over 130 grating couplers were realized and tested, showing an excellent agreement with finite difference time domain designs and fabrication-robust performance. Demonstrated grating couplers are promising for Si3N4 photonic chip prototyping by using standard optical fibers, leveraging low-cost and foundry-compatible fabrication technologies, essential for stable and reproducible large-volume device development.

Multi-Axial Elastic Averaging for Sub-Micron Passive Alignment of Photonic Components

In recent years, heterogeneous integration (HI) has become a game-changing technology for the construction of complex photonic integrated circuits. Comparing to monolithic integration (MI) technique, chips are stacked or add-on during HI. These components are attached to the substrate using an active or passive alignment scheme. As the passive alignment system does not actively search for the optical axis, it allows more die to be bonded per unit time as compared to active alignment. The main challenge is then to obtain consistent sub-micron alignment accuracy during chip manufacturing process to ensure good device performance. To achieve sub-micron alignment accuracy, slide-stop structures with multi-axial elastic averaging coupling designs are implemented. In this work, optical dies are bonded to silicon interposers with two geometrically different slide-stop designs: triangle and rectangle in designs, respectively. Due to an additional surface contact and smaller internal angle for the former, the triangle slide-stop design improves the translational-axes and rotational-axis post-bond alignment accuracy, from (Reference) −0.27 μm ± 2.54 μm @ 3sigma to (slide-stop) −0.09 μm ± 1.37 μm @ 3sigma, (Reference) 1.00 μm ± 3.19 μm @ 3sigma to (slide-stop) 0.39 μm ± 1.29 μm @ 3sigma, and (Reference) 0.06° ± 0.34° @ 3sigma to (slide-stop) 0.0002° ± 0.15° @ 3sigma respectively. Finally, narrower optical power output distribution of P-down bonded lasers with triangle slide-stop over lasers with rectangle slide-stop is demonstrated.

Micro-Transfer Printing for Heterogeneous Si Photonic Integrated Circuits

Silicon photonics (SiPh) is a disruptive technology in the field of integrated photonics and has experienced rapid development over the past two decades. Various high-performance Si and Ge/Si-based components have been developed on this platform that allow for complex photonic integrated circuits (PICs) with small footprint. These PICs have found use in a wide range of applications. Nevertheless, some non-native functions are still desired, despite the versatility of Si, to improve the overall performance of Si PICs and at the same time cut the cost of the eventual Si photonic system-on-chip. Heterogeneous integration is verified as an effective solution to address this issue, e.g. through die-wafer-bonding and flip-chip. In this paper, we discuss another technology, micro-transfer printing, for the integration of non-native material films/opto-electronic components on SiPh-based platforms. This technology allows for efficient use of non-native materials and enables the (co-)integration of a wide range of materials/devices on wafer scale in a massively parallel way. In this paper we review some of the recent developments in the integration of non-native optical functions on Si photonic platforms using micro-transfer printing.

Engineering epitaxy and condensation: Fabrication of Ge nanolayers, mechanism and applications

Superior properties for complex photonic integrated circuits can be obtained by materials other than silicon but compatible with established silicon electronics, e.g., germanium. In this work, we demonstrate the integration with silicon of fully relaxed germanium-on-insulator nanolayers enabled by micro-holes patterning. The heterosystems are fabricated thanks to the combination of epitaxy, electron beam lithography, and condensation. High resolution transmission electron microscopy and geometrical phase analyses show that for holes patterning with periodicities lower than 1 µm, the germanium nanolayers are fully relaxed and free of extended defects, while having numerous defects for larger periodicities and unpatterned settings. The experimental results are discussed with the aid of calculations of the stress for coherent epitaxial silicon–germanium layer with finite size effects and phase-field simulations accounting for the morphological evolution of the germanium crystals. The fabrication method presented here enables the growth of thick monocrystalline germanium-on-insulator layers, with great potential for optoelectronic devices with tunable dimensions and high quality. Also, these systems are suitable for high-speed germanium-on-Si photodetectors with enhanced quantum efficiency resulting from light manipulation by the array of holes. This innovative system, which is expected to operate at the visible and near-infrared range of wavelengths, has huge potential for cutting-edge applications where photodetectors and bipolar transistors are integrated into the same wafer e.g. facial recognition and LIDAR.

Cubic-wavelength mode volume photonic crystal nanobeam cavities in a monolithic CMOS platform.

We report on the design, fabrication, and experimental characterization of photonic crystal (PhC) nanobeam cavities with the smallest footprint, largest intrinsic quality factor, and smallest mode volume to be demonstrated to date in a monolithic CMOS platform. Two types of cavities were designed, with opposite spatial mode symmetries. The opposite mode symmetry, combined with evanescent coupling, allows the nanobeam cavities to be used in reflectionless topologies, desirable in complex photonic integrated circuits (PICs). The devices were implemented and fabricated in a 45 nm monolithic electronics-photonics CMOS platform optimized for silicon photonics (GlobalFoundries 45CLO) and do not require any post-processing. Quality factors exceeding 100 000 were measured for both devices, the highest, to the best of our knowledge, among fully cladded PhC nanobeam cavities in any silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform. Additionally, the ability of the cavities to confine light into small mode volumes, of the order of (λ/n)3, was confirmed experimentally using near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM). These types of cavities are an important step toward realizing ultra-low energy active devices required for the next generation of integrated optical links beyond the current microring resonator-based links and other CMOS PICs.

Low-loss erbium-incorporated rare-earth oxide waveguides on Si with bound states in the continuum and the large optical signal enhancement in them

Integrated optical amplifiers are essential building blocks for emerging applications of large-scale and complex silicon photonic integrated circuits. Single-crystal erbium-incorporated rare-earth oxide thin films epitaxially grown on silicon substrate could be a promising material candidate. Based on the mechanism of bound states in the continuum, we have developed a low-loss waveguide platform for such materials. The waveguides are formed by patterning a silicon nitride cap layer grown on a rare-earth oxide thin film on silicon-on-insulator substrate. Low propagation loss of 4.70 dB/cm has been obtained in waveguides with silicon nitride/rare-earth oxide/silicon layer stack thickness of 72 nm/90 nm/300 nm, width of 1.08 µm, at a wavelength of 1445.8 nm. Optical signal enhancement in these waveguides upon optical pumping has been observed in a wide wavelength range of 1510 to 1560 nm, with a large peak enhancement of ∼16 dB/cm around 1536 nm. Our results represent an important step towards the realization of high-performance monolithic-integrated optical amplifiers on Si.

Tunable dual-channel ultra-narrowband Bragg grating filter on thin-film lithium niobate.

We demonstrate dual-channel phase-shifted Bragg grating filters in the telecom band on thin-film lithium niobate. These integrated tunable ultra-narrow linewidth filters are crucial components for optical communication and sensing systems, as well as future quantum-photonic applications. Thin-film lithium niobate is an emerging platform suitable for these applications and has been exploited in this Letter. The demonstrated device has an extinction ratio of 27 dB and two channels with close linewidths of about 19 pm (quality factor of ${8} \times {{10}^4}$), separated by 19 GHz. The central wavelength could be efficiently tuned using the high electro-optic effect in lithium niobate with a tuning factor of 3.83 pm/V. This demonstration can be extended to tunable filters with multiple channels, along with desired frequency separations and optimized tunability, which would be useful for a variety of complex photonic integrated circuits.

Adjustable unidirectional beam splitters in two dimensional photonic crystals

The splitting properties are investigated in two dimensional silicon photonic crystals by adjusting the interface of the structure. Introducing elliptical air holes with optimized parameters on the heterointerface, the forward transmittance is significantly improved in a wide frequency range. Correspondingly, the unidirectional two-beam splitter is realized and the relative light intensities of each beam can be continuously adjusted by modulating the area ratio (AR) of elliptical air holes. Furthermore, the output beams can be changed into three and five beams by alternately introducing elliptical air holes on the monolayer output interface. Not only the forward light intensities of each beam can be continuously adjusted, but also the reverse can be tuned simultaneously by modulating the shape of elliptical air holes. Particularly, the light transmission behaviors along two opposite directions are significantly different. Moreover, the elliptical-shaped air holes have more structural freedoms and increase the design flexibility of the devices. The performance of the splitter is found to be very encouraging in the complex photonic integrated circuits.

Integrated dispersion compensated mode-locked quantum dot laser

Quantum dot lasers are excellent on-chip light sources, offering high defect tolerance, low threshold, low temperature variation, and high feedback insensitivity. Yet a monolithic integration technique combining epitaxial quantum dot lasers with passive waveguides has not been demonstrated and is needed for complex photonic integrated circuits. We present here, for the first time to our knowledge, a monolithc offset quantum dot integration platform that permits formation of a laser cavity utilizing both the robust quantum dot active region and the versatility of passive GaAs waveguide structures. This platform is substrate agnostic and therefore compatible with the quantum dot lasers directly grown on Si. As an illustration of the potential of this platform, we designed and fabricated a 20 GHz mode-locked laser with a dispersion-engineered on-chip waveguide mirror. Due to the dispersion compensation effect of the waveguide mirror, the pulse width of the mode-locked laser is reduced by a factor of 2.8.

Flip-Chip Integration of InP to SiN Photonic Integrated Circuits

We present our hybrid InP to SiN TriPleX integration interface with a novel alignment technique and its application to complex photonic integrated circuits. The integration interface comprises vertical alignment stops, which simplify the alignment process and allow for array integration with the same simplicity as for single dies. Horizontal alignment is carried out by utilizing optical backscatter reflectometry to get an active feedback signal without the need to operate the chip. Thus, typical contacting limitations of active flip-chip alignment are overcome. By using this method, we demonstrate the integration of InP DFB lasers with more than 60 mW of optical power coupled to a SiN waveguide with an averaged coupling loss of -2.1 dB. The hybrid integration process is demonstrated for single dies as well as full arrays. We evaluate the feasibility of the assembly process for complex photonic integrated circuits by integrating an InP gain chip to a SiN TriPleX external cavity. The process proves to be well suited and allows monitoring chip quality during assembly. A fully functional hybrid integrated tunable laser is fabricated, which is capable of full C-band tuning with optical output power of up to 60 mW.

Standing-wave spectrometry in silicon nano-waveguides using reflection-based near-field scanning optical microscopy**Project supported by National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2017YFA0303800), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61575218), and Defense Industrial Technology Development Program, China (Grant No. JCKY201601C006).

Utilizing reflection-based near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) to image and analyze standing-wave patterns, we present a characterization technique potentially suitable for complex photonic integrated circuits. By raster scanning along the axis of a straight nano-waveguide in tapping mode and sweeping wavelength, detailed information of propagating waves in that waveguide has been extracted from analyses in both space and wavelength domains. Our technique needs no special steps for phase stabilization, thus allowing long-duration and environment-insensitive measurements. As a proof-of-concept test, in a silicon single-mode waveguide with a few of etched holes, the locations and reflection strengths of the inner defects have been quantified. The measurement uncertainty of the reflection amplitude is less than 25% at current stage. Our technique paves the way for non-destructively diagnosing photonic circuits on a chip with sub-wavelength spatial resolution and detailed information extraction.

Photonic crystal waveguide intersection design based on Maxwell’s fish-eye lens

The number of waveguides crossing an intersection increases with the development of complex photonic integrated circuits. Numerical simulations are presented to demonstrate that Maxwell’s fish-eye (MFE) lens can be used as a multiband crossing medium. In previous designs of waveguide intersection, bends are needed before and after the intersection to adjust the crossing angle resulting in a larger footprint. The presented design incorporates the waveguide bends into the intersection which saves footprint. In this paper, 4 × 4 and 6 × 6 intersections based on ideal and graded photonic crystal (GPC) MFE lenses are investigated, where 4 and 6 waveguides intersect, respectively. The intersection based on ideal MFE lens partially covers the O, E, S, C, L, and U bands of optical communication, while the intersection based on GPC-MFE lens is optimized to cover the entire C-band. For 4 × 4 and 6 × 6 intersections based on GPC-MFE lens, crosstalk levels are below -24 dB and -18 dB, and the average insertion losses are 0.60 dB and 0.85 dB in the C-band with lenses’ radii of 7×a and 10×a, respectively, where a is the lattice constant of the photonic crystal.

High Performance InP-Based Photonic ICs—A Tutorial

The performance of relatively complex photonic integrated circuits (PICs) is now reaching such high levels that the long sought goal of realizing low-cost, -size, -weight, and -power chips to replace hybrid solutions seems to have been achieved for some applications. This tutorial traces some of the evolution of this technology that has led to an array of high-functionality InP-based PICs useful in optical sensing and communication applications. Examples of recent high-performance PICs that have arisen out of these developments are presented. Fundamental to much of this work was the development of integration strategies to compatibly combine a variety of components in a relatively simple fabrication process. For the UCSB work, this was initially based upon the creation of a single-chip widely tunable semiconductor laser that required the integration of gain, reflector, phase-tuning and absorber sections. As it provided most of the elements needed for many more complex PICs, their creation followed somewhat naturally by adding more of these same elements outside of the laser cavity using the same processing steps. Of course, additional elements were needed for some of the PICs to be discussed, but in most cases, these have been added without adding significant processing complexity. Generally, the integration philosophy has been to avoid patterned epitaxial growths, to use post-growth processing, such as quantum-well intermixing to provide multiple bandgaps, rather than multiple epitaxial regrowths, and to focus on processes that could be performed with vendor growth and implant facilities so that only basic clean room processing facilities are required.

Minimization of the loss of intersecting waveguides in InP-based photonic integrated circuits

Waveguide intersections contribute significantly to the total loss of complex photonic integrated circuits. A systematic theoretical and experimental investigation into the loss of waveguide intersections in InP-based waveguides is presented, including an approach for minimizing intersection loss. Extremely low loss below 20 mdB per intersection is demonstrated experimentally.

Quantum-well intermixing for fabrication of lasers and photonic integrated circuits

Various applications of quantum-well intermixing, ranging from multiwavelength lasers to complex photonic integrated circuits, are described. The fabrication of these GaAs-AlGaAs-based devices relies on the postgrowth definition of regions with varying bandgap, enabling the manufacture of wavelength shifted modulators and lasers, as well as the integration of transparent waveguides with absorbing lasers and detectors. The impurity-free vacancy-enhanced disordering technique employed, and its integration with existing process technologies, will be presented, and examples of multicolor lasers, wavelength shifted modulators and integrated optical interferometers are shown. These applications yield high-optical functionality using relatively simple process and integration technology.