Devices and architectures for large scale integrated silicon photonics circuits

We present DWDM nanophotonics architectures based on microring resonator modulators and detectors. We focus on two implementations: an on chip interconnect for multicore processor (Corona) and a high radix network switch (HyperX). Based on the requirements of these applications we discuss the key constraints on the photonic circuits' devices and fabrication techniques as well as strategies to improve their performance

Mid-infrared silicon photonics

A mid-infrared silicon nanophotonic integrated circuit platform can have broad impact upon environmental monitoring, personalized healthcare, and public safety applications. Development of various mid-IR components, including optical parametric amplifiers, sources, modulators, and detectors, is reviewed

Mid-Infrared Silicon Photonics

A mid-infrared silicon nanophotonic integrated circuit platform can have broad impact upon environmental monitoring, personalized healthcare, and public safety applications. Development of various mid-IR components, including optical parametric amplifiers, sources, modulators, and detectors, is reviewed

Wavelength-multiplexed duplex transceiver based on III-V/Si hybrid integration for off-chip and on-chip optical interconnects

A six-channel wavelength-division-multiplexed optical transceiver with a compact footprint of 1.5 x 0.65 mm(2) for off-chip and on-chip interconnects is demonstrated on a single silicon-on-insulator chip. An arrayed waveguide grating is used as the (de)multiplexer, and III-V electroabsorption sections fabricated by hybrid integration technology are used as both modulators and detectors, which also enable duplex links. The 30-Gb/s capacity for each of the six wavelength channels for the off-chip transceiver is demonstrated. For the on-chip interconnect, an electrical-to-electrical 3-dB bandwidth of 13 GHz and a data rate of 30 Gb/s per wavelength are achieved

An Integrated-Photonics Optical-Frequency Synthesizer

Integrated-photonics microchips now enable a range of advanced functionalities for high-coherence applications such as data transmission, highly optimized physical sensors, and harnessing quantum states, but with cost, efficiency, and portability much beyond tabletop experiments. Through high-volume semiconductor processing built around advanced materials there exists an opportunity for integrated devices to impact applications cutting across disciplines of basic science and technology. Here we show how to synthesize the absolute frequency of a lightwave signal, using integrated photonics to implement lasers, system interconnects, and nonlinear frequency comb generation. The laser frequency output of our synthesizer is programmed by a microwave clock across 4 THz near 1550 nm with 1 Hz resolution and traceability to the SI second. This is accomplished with a heterogeneously integrated III/V-Si tunable laser, which is guided by dual dissipative-Kerr-soliton frequency combs fabricated on silicon chips. Through out-of-loop measurements of the phase-coherent, microwave-to-optical link, we verify that the fractional-frequency instability of the integrated photonics synthesizer matches the $7.0*10^{-13}$ reference-clock instability for a 1 second acquisition, and constrain any synthesis error to $7.7*10^{-15}$ while stepping the synthesizer across the telecommunication C band. Any application of an optical frequency source would be enabled by the precision optical synthesis presented here. Building on the ubiquitous capability in the microwave domain, our results demonstrate a first path to synthesis with integrated photonics, leveraging low-cost, low-power, and compact features that will be critical for its widespread use.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

A Silicon Nitride Microring Based High-Speed, Tuning-Efficient, Electro-Refractive Modulator

The use of the Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) platform has been prominent for realizing CMOS-compatible, high-performance photonic integrated circuits (PICs). But in recent years, the silicon-nitride-on-silicon-dioxide (SiN-on-SiO$_2$) platform has garnered increasing interest as an alternative to the SOI platform for realizing high-performance PICs. This is because of its several beneficial properties over the SOI platform, such as low optical losses, high thermo-optic stability, broader wavelength transparency range, and high tolerance to fabrication-process variations. However, SiN-on-SiO$_2$ based active devices such as modulators are scarce and lack in desired performance, due to the absence of free-carrier based activity in the SiN material and the complexity of integrating other active materials with SiN-on-SiO$_2$ platform. This shortcoming hinders the SiN-on-SiO$_2$ platform for realizing active PICs. To address this shortcoming, we demonstrate a SiN-on-SiO$_2$ microring resonator (MRR) based active modulator in this article. Our designed MRR modulator employs an Indium-Tin-Oxide (ITO)-SiN-ITO thin-film stack, in which the ITO thin films act as the upper and lower claddings of the SiN MRR. The ITO-SiN-ITO thin-film stack leverages the free-carrier assisted, high-amplitude refractive index change in the ITO films to effect a large electro-refractive optical modulation in the device. Based on the electrostatic, transient, and finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulations, conducted using photonics foundry-validated tools, we show that our modulator achieves 280 pm/V resonance modulation efficiency, 67.8 GHz 3-dB modulation bandwidth, $\sim$19 nm free-spectral range (FSR), $\sim$0.23 dB insertion loss, and 10.31 dB extinction ratio for optical on-off-keying (OOK) modulation at 30 Gb/s

On Chip Optical Modulator using Epsilon-Near-Zero Hybrid Plasmonic Platform

In this work, we propose a micro-scale modulator architecture with compact size, low insertion loss, high extinction ratio, and low energy/bit while being compatible with the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform. This is achieved through the utilization of epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) effect of indium-tin-oxide (ITO) to maximize the attainable change in the effective index of the optical mode. It also exploits the ITO layer in a hybrid plasmonic ring resonator which further intensifies the effect of the changes in both the real and imaginary parts of the effective index. By electrically inducing carriers in the indium tin oxide (ITO), to reach the ENZ state, the resonance condition shifts, and the losses of the hybrid plasmonic ring resonator increases significantly. This mechanism is optimized to maximize the extinction ratio and minimize the insertion loss. The proposed structure is designed to maximize the coupling to and from standard SOI waveguide, used as access ports. In addition, the operational region is reconfigurable by changing the bias voltage. - 2019, The Author(s).This work was made possible by a NPRP award [NPRP7-456-1-085] from the Qatar National Research Fund (member of the Qatar Foundation). The statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the authors.Scopu