GaAs-on-Si Modulator Using a Buried Silicide Reflector,
Abstract
Optical interconnection of electronic integrated circuit chips is currently of great interest. This would provide a much greater bandwidth of information flow on and off the chip, especially if surface-normal devices are used since then information may flow vertically from the chip and the entire area of the chip may be used rather than just the periphery. This capability is especially important for silicon very-large scale integrated circuits since input and output of information to the chip is a bottleneck. ne process of integrating surface-normal devices (either modulators or lasers) with silicon electronics is complicated by the necessity of thick mirror stacks. The resulting thick devices cause a large topography change, complicating processing due to reduced linewidth control and the necessity of wide depth-of-focus lithography for passivating and metalizing device sidewalls. A typical modulator on silicon is about 6 micrometers thick, 2-3 micrometers of which is the mirror layer, for devices operating at 850 nm. For longer wavelength devices, mirror stacks become even thicker, until at 1.55 micrometers they are prohibitive. We present here a way to reduce this thickness by replacing the dielectric mirror with a buried silicide reflector. An epitaxial silicide layer buried under a thin layer of epitaxial silicon is formed by a implant/anneal technique called mesotaxy. As an example of this technique, we present a GaAs modulator using a buried-silicide reflector. We obtain a change of reflectivity from 6% to 16% as the voltage on the device is ramped from 0 to 25 volts.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 1992
- Accession Number
- ADP008208
Entities
People
- A. E. White
- J. E. Cunningham
- K. T. Short
- K. W. Goossen
- W. Y. Jan