A NOVEL HYBRID MATERIAL AND DEVICE PLATFORM FOR ULTRA-LOW-POWER AND ULTRA-FAST INTEGRATED PHOTONIC DEVICES AND SYSTEMS
Abstract
A novel high-speed and ultra-low-power material and device platform for integrated photonic applications is proposed. This platform combines the best of conventional CMOS-compatible platforms (e.g., silicon (Si) and silicon nitride (SiN)) with emerging electro-optic materials (e.g., lithium niobate (LiNbO3, LN)) to form, for the first time, a new electro-optically active, ultra-low-loss, ultra-fast, and reconfigurable platform with zero DC power consumption, which is CMOS-compatible. In addition to the complete development of the SiN-on-LN (SiNoLN) material platform and fabrication processes for functional photonic devices, we propose to demonstrate ultra-low-power (100 aJ/bit), ultra-fast (100 Gbaud/sec), low-input-voltage (sub-1 V) modulators that are urgently needed for communication/interconnection links as well as RF photonic systems and optical computing engines. Using a novel coupling-modulator architecture, the power-speed trade-off in conventional resonance-based modulators will be broken resulting in simultaneous achievement of high speed and very low power-consumption. The proposed platform is designed to require only pattering of the SiN layer resulting in a very simple CMOS-compatible fabrication process. Using the strong electro-optic effect in LN enables ultra-low-power operation at very low voltages as well as the ability to compensate the effect of fabrication imperfections and environmental variations in the resonance wavelength of the fabricated high-Q resonators. In principle, our proposed platform realizes one of the dreams of Si photonics, i.e., forming an active SiN platform without adding major fabrication challenges, design complexities, or extra optical loss. Key innovations in this platform include, but are not limited to: 1) the heterogeneous SiNoLN material platform, which can offer very-low-loss propagation of coherent light in the integrated photonic devices (i.e., waveguides and resonators) by integrating the unique features of SiN (i.e., the possibility of forming ultra-high-Q resonators (Q > 107)) with those of LN (i.e., high-speed, low-power modulators with very low operation voltages, and ultra-low absorption loss); 2) the coupling modulation architecture, a design principle to break the power-speed trade-off in conventional resonance-based integrated photonic modulators, and 3) novel fabrication approaches, which can realize ultra-compact resonance-based devices in the hybrid SiNoLN material platform without requiring complex etching processes or conventional power-hungry trimming approaches to compensate the resonance-wavelength errors due to fabrication imperfections and environmental fluctuations. The proposed material and device platform can be adopted and extended to form a large range of reconfigurable integrated photonic devices (e.g., filters, switches, delay lines, etc.) with transformative impact on several important state-of-the-art applications, including RF-photonic signal processing, communications/networking, ranging/lidar, interconnection, computing, and integrated quantum photonics. The proposed devices can be combined with wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) techniques to enable ultra-high-speed (e.g., terra-bits-per-second) and ultra-low-power (aJs/bit) interconnection/communication links that can play an important role in the next generation data centers. The proposed research also provides a unique opportunity for training graduate and undergraduate students. This multidisciplinary research combines different modeling, simulation, advanced fabrication, and characterization techniques with engineering, design, and optimization approaches for implementation of a novel material and device platform to realize practical integrated photonic systems. Therefore, it provides a rich education environment for students involved by exposing them to a broad variety of activities that form a solid basis for those heading toward either academic or industrial careers.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jun 25, 2021
- Source ID
- W911NF2110083
Entities
People
- Ali Adibi
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- Georgia Tech Research Corporation
- United States Army