Commercial introduction of emerging integrated photonics technologies requires a long and complex multi-layer product development, industrialization, and qualification cycles at all levels of value chain from initial product design, material sourcing, component-system-module manufacturing, and testing, through marketing and delivery of new products to the market. Scalable assembly and packaging of electronic-photonic integrated modules is important and may take more than a half of the entire product’s costs. In this paper, we will report on some of our industrial processes for scalable photonics packaging, as well as challenges and results obtained from our research and innovation projects.
We describe the assembly of a 5G transceiver leveraging photonics for the generation, emission and detection of THz wireless signals. The transceiver and all associated control electronics and power supplies are designed for mounting in a mobile aerial unit. A photonics motherboard concept that brings together polymer, III-V and SiNbased photonic platforms and provides optical fiber connectivity is used for the assembly. In addition, scalable integration of 3D components, in this case an antenna rod or rod array, is demonstrated. Thermal considerations arising from the dense integration of photonic and electronic components and the resulting concentrated heat load are also discussed.
This paper demonstrates the experimental study of edge and top illuminated SiGe phototransistors (HPT) implemented using the existing industrial SiGe2RF Telefunken GmbH BiCMOS technology for opto-microwave (OM) applications using 850nm Multi-Mode Fibers (MMF). Its technology and structure are described. Two different optical window size HPTs with top illumination (5x5μm2, 10x10μm2) and an edge illuminated HPTs having 5μm x5μm size are presented and compared. A two-step post fabrication process was used to create an optical access on the edge of the HPT for lateral illumination with a lensed MMF through simple polishing and dicing techniques. We perform Opto-microwave Scanning Near-field Optical Microscopy (OM-SNOM) analysis on edge and top illuminated HPTs in order to observe the fastest and the highest sensitive regions of the HPTs. This analysis also allows understanding the parasitic effect from the substrate, and thus draws a conclusion on the design aspect of SiGe/Si HPT. A low frequency OM responsivity of 0.45A/W and a cutoff frequency, f-3dB, of 890MHz were measured for edge illuminated HPT. Compared to the top illuminated HPT of the same size, the edge illuminated HPT improves the f-3dB by a factor of more than two and also improves the low frequency responsivity by a factor of more than four. These results demonstrate that a simple etched HPT is still enough to achieve performance improvements compared to the top illuminated HPT without requiring a complex coupling structure. Indeed, it also proves the potential of edge coupled SiGe HPT in the ultra-low-cost silicon based optoelectronics circuits with a new approach of the optical packaging and system integration to 850nm MMF.
Si Avalanche based LEDs technology has been developed in the 650 -850nm wavelength regime [1, 2]. Correspondingly, small micro-dimensioned detectors with pW/μm2 sensitivity have been developed for the same wavelength range utilizing Si-Ge detector technology with detection efficiencies of up to 0.85, and with a transition frequencies of up to 80 GHz [3] A series of on-chip optical links of 50 micron length, utilizing 650 – 850 nm propagation wavelength have been designed and realized, utilizing a Si Ge radio frequency bipolar process. Micron dimensioned optical sources, waveguides and detectors were all integrated on the same chip to form a complete optical link on-chip. Avalanche based Si LEDs (Si Av LEDs), Schottky contacting, TEOS densification strategies, silicon nitride based waveguides, and state of the art Si-Ge bipolar detector technologies were used as key design strategies. Best performances show optical coupling from source to detector of up to 10GHz and - 40dBm total optical link budget loss with a potential transition frequency coupling of up to 40GHz utilizing Si Ge based LEDs. The technology is particularly suitable for application as on-chip optical links, optical MEMS and MOEMS, as well as for optical interconnects utilizing low loss, side surface, waveguide- to-optical fiber coupling. Most particularly is one of our designed waveguide which have a good core axis alignment with the optical source and yield 10GHz -30dB on-chip micro-optical links as shown in Fig 9 (c). The technology as developed has been appropriately IP protected.
Micron dimensioned on-chip optical links of 50 micron length, utilizing 650 – 850 nm propagation wavelength, have been realized in a Si Ge bipolar process. Key design strategies is the utilization of high speed avalanche based Si light emitting devices (Si Av LEds) in combination with silicon nitride based wave guides and high speeds Si Ge based optical detectors. The optical source, waveguide and detector were all integrated on the same chip. TEOS densification strategies and state of the art Si-Ge bipolar technology were further used as key design strategies. Best performances show up to 25 GHz RF carrier modulation and - 40dBm total optical link budget loss with a power consumption of only 0.1 mW per GHz bandwidth. Improvement possibilities still exist. The process used is in regular production. The technology is particularly suitable for application as optical interconnects utilizing low loss, side surface, waveguide to optical fibre coupling.
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