Presentation + Paper
4 March 2019 Si-rich nitride waveguides for the formation of back-end-of-line interfaces with III-V optical sources on silicon
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
Silicon photonics technology has demonstrated, over the years, Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) relying on Si or Si3N4 materials that feature advanced functionalities for a wide area of applications. However, the fabrication of such PICs is usually compatible only with Front-End-of-Line (FEOL) processes that render very difficult post processing of the involved chips towards providing efficient interfaces with optical sources. This is a major problem for the next generation photonic circuits that are expected to co-integrate III-V laser sources on the Si substrate in a monolithic way, as the coupling interface between the active and the passive part of the PIC should be developed after the epitaxy and the fabrication of the lasers. In this work, we report on the development of a novel Silicon Rich Nitride (SRN) material with low stress and high refractive index (n<3.16), close to that of InP and InGaAsP which are commonly utilized for the laser sources. The SRN has been characterized with spectroscopic ellipsometry and Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy for estimation of complex refractive index and hydrogen content in the film. Based on this material, a trilayer stack has been developed for the formation of waveguides compatible with the Back-End-of-Line (BEOL) processes, while propagation losses have been extracted through cut-back measurements. These experimental results were then inserted as input parameters in 2D- and 3D-FDTD simulations for the design of efficient interfaces between III-V lasers and Si3N4 waveguides providing coupling efficiencies that can reach 83.81% and back-reflections of 0.032%.
Conference Presentation
© (2019) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
D. Ketzaki, D. Chatzitheocharis, C. Calò, C. Caillaud , A. Delga, and K. Vyrsokinos "Si-rich nitride waveguides for the formation of back-end-of-line interfaces with III-V optical sources on silicon", Proc. SPIE 10921, Integrated Optics: Devices, Materials, and Technologies XXIII, 1092114 (4 March 2019); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2509261
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KEYWORDS
Waveguides

Silicon

Interfaces

Refractive index

Photonic integrated circuits

Semiconducting wafers

Hydrogen

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