Safian Reza, Teng Min, Zhuang Leimeng, Chakravarty Swapnajit
Opt Express. 2020 Aug 31;28(18):25843-25857. doi: 10.1364/OE.396335.
Ever-increasing complexity of communication systems demands the co-integration of electronics and photonics. But there are still some challenges associated with the integration of thin film lithium niobate (TFLN) electro-optic modulators with the standard and well-established silicon photonics. Current TFLN platforms are mostly not compatible with the silicon photonics foundry process due to the choice of substrate or complicated fabrication requirements, including silicon substrate removal and formation of radio-frequency (RF) electrodes on the top of the TFLN. Here, we report on a platform where all the optical and RF waveguiding structures are fabricated first, and then the TFLN is bonded on top of the silicon photonic chip as the only additional step. Hence, the need for substrate removal is eliminated, and except for the last step of TFLN bonding, its fabrication process is silicon foundry compatible and much more straightforward compared to other fabrication methods.
通信系统日益增长的复杂性要求电子学和光子学共同集成。但是，将薄膜铌酸锂（TFLN）电光调制器与标准且成熟的硅光子学集成仍存在一些挑战。由于衬底的选择或复杂的制造要求，包括硅衬底去除以及在TFLN顶部形成射频（RF）电极，当前的TFLN平台大多与硅光子学代工工艺不兼容。在此，我们报道了一个平台，其中所有光学和射频波导结构首先被制造出来，然后TFLN作为唯一的额外步骤被键合在硅光子芯片顶部。因此，消除了去除衬底的需求，并且除了TFLN键合的最后一步之外，其制造工艺与硅代工兼容，并且与其他制造方法相比更加直接。
