Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs)

Nitin K. Lohar 2012JOP2495

Overview
Introduction Types of Integration Materials used for PIC fabrication Fabrication of Waveguides in PICs PICs vs. Electronic ICs References

Photonic Integrated Circuits (PIC)

Integrated circuit which incorporates at least two optical devices with an optical waveguide junction in between to form a single photonic circuit Optical device such as lasers, modulators, detectors, attenuators, MUXsDEMUXs, optical amplifiers, filters, couplers, photonic switches etc. Aim is to achieve greater processing power, lower cost per device, improved reliability, reduced space and power requirements Primary application in fiber optic communication, others include biomedical sensing and photonic computing

Example Devices

Image courtesy: Ref. 1

Types of Integration
Hybrid
Many single function optical devices are assembled into a single package, sometimes with associated electronic ICs These devices are interconnected to each other by electronic and/or optical couplings internal to the package Highly complex and challenging

Monolithic Integration
Can consolidate many devices and functions into a single photonic material Fabrication involves same steps as of electronic ICs: building devices into a common substrate so that all photonic couplings occur within the substrate and all functions are consolidated into a single, physically unique device

Image courtesy: Ref. 6

Material used for PIC Fabrication

Many material can be used such as: Indium Phosphide (InP), Gallium Arsenide (GaAs), Lithium Niobate (LiNbO3), Silicon (Si), and Silicon-on-Silica (Silicon on Insulator SOI). LiNbO3: can be used for modulation and SHG, but cannot be used for active Opto-electronic components such as lasers and detectors. GaAs can be used for both lasing and detection but only in 850nm telecom window. Si: mature CMOS technology available, can be used as material platform for passive optical components, but difficulties in active components

Indium Phosphide can be used for integration of both active and passive optical devices operating in the 1310nm or 1550nm telecom windows

Fabrication of Waveguides in PICs

Two types: Conventional index guided waveguides and Photonic waveguides

Figure: Fabrication process of photonic nano structures in SOI using deep UV lithography and dry etching [Ref. 4]

PICs vs. Electronic ICs

Main difference: type of material used for fabrication
For Electronic ICs, it is mainly silicon For the case of PICs, materials vary as per the functioning of device, such as LiNbO3, GaAs, InP, SOI etc.

In an electronic IC, the main device is the transistor. In PIC, there is no particular main device that dominates in the fabrication Because of the mature technology available for Silicon, cost of electronic ICs is much less than of PICs, also, the number of components in electronic ICs is much larger than in PICs.

Image courtesy: Ref. 2

Conclusion
Photonic integrated circuits make the whole system more compact and helps in providing high performance. These chips can be integrated with basic electronic circuits which makes it applicable for more functions. The development of PIC technology has not yet reached its high end. Through constant research, people are trying to make this technology a common, low cost, and highly efficient one In future most of electronic ICs will be replaced by PICs.

References
1. Application specic photonic integrated circuits through generic integration, a novel paradigm in photonics, P. Munoz, J.D. Domenech et al, Waves, 2011. 2. Large-scale photonic integrated circuits, Nagarajan, R.; Joyner, C.H. et al, Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of , vol.11, no.1, pp.50,65, Jan.-Feb. 2005 doi: 10.1109/JSTQE.2004.841721 3. Photonic Integrated Circuits: A Technology and Application Primer, Infinera white paper, Document Number: DS-008-001/0605, 2005. 4. Basic structures for photonic integrated circuits in Silicon-on-insulator, W. Bogaerts, D. Taillaert, B. Luyssaert, P. Dumon, J. Van Campenhout, P. Bienstman, D. Van Thourhout, R. Baets, V. Wiaux, and S. Beckx, Opt. Express 12, 1583-1591, 2004. 5. Diode Lasers and Photonic Integrated Circuits, L. A. Coldren, S. W. Corzine, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1995.

6. Image Courtesy: http://www.kaiamcorp.com/tech_detail1.htm