We developed and optimized a double-layer edge coupler design and fabrication process to ensure the compliance of low-loss photonic wire bonding on the lithium niobate platform under the collaborative effort between Vanguard Automation (VA) and Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM).
The emergent thin-film lithium niobate on insulator (TFLN or LNOI) photonic integrated circuits (PICs) offer significant advantages in various applications due to their unique properties. This paper briefly explores recent advancements in TFLN PIC developments and their broad applications, emphasizing transformative capabilities in telecommunications and beyond. We highlight CSEM's pioneering initiative in establishing the first open-access foundry for this technology, addressing challenges associated with limited access to manufacturing facilities and process design kits (PDK).
Photonic integrated circuits provide a scalable platform for photonics-based quantum technologies. However, integrating quantum emitters and electro-optic cavities within this platform remains an open challenge proving to be a major hurdle from implementing key functionalities for quantum photonics, such as single photon sources and nonlinearities. Here, we address this shortcoming with the hybrid integration of InAs/InP quantum dot emitters on foundry silicon photonics and the implementation of photonic crystal cavities in thin-film lithium niobate. Co-integrated on-chip electronics allow us to tune the emission properties of the quantum dots while enabling GHz-rate coherent modulation over photons trapped in the cavities, thus providing a new level of programmability over interactions between optical fields and atom-like systems in integrated circuits. Our results open the door to a new generation of quantum information processors that can be manufactured in leading semiconductor foundries.
Large-scale quantum photonics requires the integration of several elements on the same chip, including quantum emitters and memories, active photonics, and single-photon detectors. In this talk, I will report on i) our recent work integrating superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPD) with mechanically reconfigurable integrated photonics, and ii) our recently developed method for integration of SNSPDs onto arbitrary photonic substrates.
The rapid development of photonic applications calls for scalable, miniaturized power efficient integrated circuits. Thin film lithium niobate (TFLN) now emerges as a major photonic platform for integration of advanced functionalities such as based on nonlinear optics. We report experimentally efficient second harmonic generation in periodically poled lithium niobate waveguides and design rules for nonlinear frequency conversion, including a study on tolerances on the dimensions and poling parameters. Our work aims at establishing reliable and versatile nonlinear building blocks for scalable TFLN photonic integrated circuits.
Thin Film Lithium Niobate (TFLN) photonic integrated circuits offer several improvements over other platforms in terms of material loss, energy efficiency, and operational bandwidth. We review our recent demonstration of quadrature phase shift keying in an ultrasmall TFLN photonic crystal-based IQ modulator. Our modulator features a footprint of 40 × 200 μm2 along with quality factors approaching 105 providing it with a Vπ = 1.16 V [H. Larocque et al. CLEO 2023, paper STh1R.3; H. Larocque et al. arXiv:2312.16746]. We discuss an extension to and optimization of quadrature amplitude modulation encoding schemes tailored to the device’s voltage response, including the use of a deep neural network for streamlining bit error rate minimization.
KEYWORDS: Waveguides, Microelectromechanical systems, Phase shifts, Liquid crystals, Silicon photonics, Silicon, Photonic integrated circuits, Electrodes, Oxides, Back end of line
The demand for efficient actuators in photonics has peaked with increasing popularity for large-scale general-purpose programmable photonics circuits. We present our work to enhance an established silicon photonics platform with low-power micro-electromechanical (MEMS) and liquid crystal (LC) actuators to enable largescale programmable photonic integrated circuits (PICs).
We give an overview the progress of our work in silicon photonic programmable circuits, covering the technology stack from the photonic chip over the driver electronics, packaging technologies all the way to the software layers. On the photonic side, we show our recent results in large-scale silicon photonic circuits with different tuning technologies, including heaters, MEMS and liquid crystals, and their respective electronic driving schemes. We look into the scaling potential of these different technologies as the number of tunable elements in a circuit increases. Finally, we elaborate on the software routines for routing and filter synthesis to enable the photonic programmer.
Photonic add-drop filters are crucial components for the implementation of wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) in fiber-optic communication systems. The recent progress in photonic integration has shown the potential to integrate photonic add-drop filters alongside high-performance photonic building blocks on a chip to construct compact and complex photonic-integrated circuits for WDM. Typically, implementations are based on micro-ring resonators with integrated heaters or free carrier dispersion-based modulators to adjust the filter wavelength. However, heaters suffer from high power consumption, and free carriers result in optical absorption losses, limiting the scalability toward very-large-scale circuits. We demonstrate the design, simulation, fabrication, and experimental characterization of a compact add-drop filter based on a vertically movable, MEMS-actuated ring resonator. The MEMS-actuated add-drop filter is implemented in IMEC’s iSiPP50G silicon photonics platform and realized using a short post-processing flow to safely release the suspended MEMS structures in a wafer-level compatible process. The filter exhibits a through port linewidth of ∼1 nm (124.37 GHz) at 1557.1 nm, and it retains a port extinction of 20 dB and a port isolation of >50 dB under 27 V of actuation voltage. The combination of low-power consumption and a compact footprint demonstrates the suitability for very-large-scale integration in photonic circuits.
We present our work in the European project MORPHIC to extend an established silicon photonics platform with low-power and non-volatile micro-electromechanical (MEMS) actuators to demonstrate large-scale programmable photonic integrated circuits (PICs).
We present our work to extend silicon photonics with MEMS actuators to enable low-power, large scale programmable photonic circuits. For this, we start from the existing iSiPP50G silicon photonics platform of IMEC, where we add free-standing movable waveguides using a few post-processing steps. This allows us to implement phase shifters and tunable couplers using electrostatically actuated MEMS, while at the same time maintaining all the original functionality of the silicon photonics platform. The MEMS devices are protected using a wafer-level sealing approach and interfaced with custom multi-channel driver and readout electronics.
We review our recent work on compact and low power silicon photonic components based on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and implemented in imec’s iSiPP50G foundry platform. Large scale reconfigurability is attractive for emerging applications such as photonic accelerators for AI workloads. However, the large power consumption and footprint of current components prohibits scaling to large circuits. Silicon MEMS offer 10000x lower power consumption, a small footprint, and excellent mechanics. We show phase shifters, couplers, and wavelength filters . The devices have small footprints of a few tens of micrometers per side, low insertion losses of the order of 0.1 dB and time constants of the order of 1 µs.
We present the concept and detailed design of a Smart Slit Assembly for next generation spectrometers, and we experimentally demonstrate operation of an individual 221 μm × 111 μm smart slit channel employing a MEMS actuated shutter to continuously modulate the intensity of the optical input signal. The MEMS actuated shutter is fabricated in a 211 μm thick device layer of a Silicon-On-Insulator wafer by Deep Reactive Ion Etching. Electrostatic comb drive actuators allow an absolute displacement of 52 μm at 74 V, resulting in a continuously tunable shutter efficiency of up to 99.97% at an operating wavelength of 532 nm.
Silicon (Si) photonic micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), with its low-power phase shifters and tunable couplers, is emerging as a promising technology for large-scale reconfigurable photonics with potential applications for example in photonic accelerators for artificial intelligence (AI) workloads. For silicon photonic MEMS devices, hermetic/vacuum packaging is crucial to the performance and longevity, and to protect the photonic devices from contamination. Here, we demonstrate a wafer-level vacuum packaging approach to hermetically seal Si photonic MEMS wafers produced in the iSiPP50G Si photonics foundry platform of IMEC. The packaging approach consists of transfer bonding and sealing the silicon photonic MEMS devices with 30 μm-thick Si caps, which were prefabricated on a 100 mm-diameter silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer. The packaging process achieved successful wafer-scale vacuum sealing of various photonic devices. The functionality of photonic MEMS after the hermetic/vacuum packaging was confirmed. Thus, the demonstrated thin Si cap packaging shows the possibility of a novel vacuum sealing method for MEMS integrated in standard Si photonics platforms.
In the European project MORPHIC we develop a platform for programmable silicon photonic circuits enabled by waveguide-integrated micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS). MEMS can add compact, and low-power phase shifters and couplers to an established silicon photonics platform with high-speed modulators and detectors. This MEMS technology is used for a new class of programmable photonic circuits, that can be reconfigured using electronics and software, consisting of large interconnected meshes of phase shifters and couplers. MORPHIC is also developing the packaging and driver electronics interfacing schemes for such large circuits, creating a supply chain for rapid prototyping new photonic chip concepts. These will be demonstrated in different applications, such as switching, beamforming and microwave photonics.
We present the design of a non-volatile, bistable silicon photonic MEMS switch. The switch architecture builds on our previously demonstrated silicon photonic MEMS switch unit cell, using vertically movable adiabatic couplers. We here propose to exploit compressive stress in the movable polysilicon waveguides in a controlled manner, to intentionally displace the movable waveguides out of plane upon release. We design the waveguide suspensions to achieve close alignment with the fixed bus waveguide in the ON state, and positioning of the movable waveguide far from the fixed waveguide in the OFF state. Both ON and OFF positions are stable mechanically, without the need for maintaining an actuation voltage. In order to actuate the movable waveguide, we design vertical comb drive actuators that allow to commutate between both stable ON and OFF positions. Finite Element simulations predict electrostatic switch actuation with less than 30 V for compressive stress typically accessible in deposited polysilicon thin films. We validate the bistability mechanism by comparison with a representative experimental demonstrator. The demonstrator consists of a structured 100 nm poly-Si layer, deposited by chemical vapor deposition onto a thermally oxidized (1 μm) silicon wafer, exhibiting a compressive intrinsic stress of 275 MPa. Upon direct writing laser based photolithography, etching and final HF vapor release, the suspended structures bend into either stable position, and we measure a total buckling amplitude of 800 nm, sufficient to entirely de-couple the waveguides optically in the OFF state.
We present a design for an on-chip MEMS-actuated Variable Optical Attenuator (VOA) based on Silicon Photonic MEMS technology. The VOA consists of 30 individual mechanically movable MEMS cantilevers, suspended over an integrated, 1 μm wide bus waveguide, each terminating with two optical attenuation bars. By exploiting the pull-in instability, electrostatic actuation allows to move the individual cantilevers into proximity of the waveguide, leading to scattering of the evanescent field and thus attenuation of the remaining optical power in the waveguide. Electrodes are placed below the cantilevers for electrostatic actuation. Mechanical stoppers are used to avoid contact between the cantilevers and the electrodes and to keep the bars at a precisely defined distance of 60 nm away from the bus waveguide. The attenuator provides nearly zero insertion loss in OFF state, while in ON state, the attenuation range is defined by the number of actuated digital attenuation cantilevers and can be adjusted in discrete increments of only 1.2 dB. Owing to the small size, fast microsecond scale response time can be achieved, and electrostatic MEMS actuation allows for broadband and low-power operation. Our design exhibits a compact footprint of 30 μm × 45 μm, attenuation from 0 dB to 36 dB, while keeping return loss below 27 dB. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first presentation of a design of a VOA in Silicon Photonic MEMS technology.
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