Silicon Photonics

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Silicon photonics is a rapidly emerging field in research and technology of photonic integrated circuits. Given its high refraction index and low dispersion, silicon is a high quality material for light guiding devices. On the other hand, VLSI CMOS compatible processes allow one to design reliable photonic structures, which can be easily integrated with standard electronic circuits at affordable cost. Several structures can be envisaged by means of Silicon Photonic technology such as, for example, optical ring resonators or Mach-Zehnder interferometers. In the basic standard geometry of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer, the arm dimensions are too large for an efficient integration on a silicon chip, in applications where a large number of interferometers are required such as in silicon pixel detectors used in many fields of science and applications - from particle and nuclear physics experiments to medical physics.



Optical modulation, in silicon photonic integrated Mach-Zehnder interferometers can be obtained using the interference condition between the two different interferometer branches by controlling the electro-optical effect (plasma dispersion). The silicon photonic integrated Mach-Zehnder, if available with a geometry that maximizes the integration on a silicon chip, is an excellent device for many applications that require integration of a large number of channels in a single chip. That allow s realizing a chip that is able, together with the photonic element, to host electronics and sensors on silicon, such as high-speed data transmission in the high-energy particles silicon detectors. Two Mach-Zehnder interferometers with different configurations have been designed and produced in a single die in IHP SG25H4_EPIC 0.25 um technology: one developed almost entirely in line (A configuration), while the second has the two arms folded in a spiral to minimize the occupied surface (B configuration). The spiral configuration (1300 um x 700 um), with respect to the standard straight one (6200 um x 600 um), offers smaller size which allows easier integration. The two different Mach-Zehnder interferometers have been tested in the laboratory and their performances have been compared in a 1550 nm optical telecommunication window. The optical and electrical contact positioning has been carried out by means of micrometric movements on three perpendicular axes.

References

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