Dual-polarization multiplexing amorphous Si:H grating couplers for silicon photonic transmitters in the photonic BiCMOS backend of line.

In this paper, we report on polarization combining two-dimensional grating couplers (2D GCs) on amorphous Si:H, fabricated in the backend of line of a photonic BiCMOS platform. The 2D GCs can be used as an interface of a hybrid silicon photonic coherent transmitter, which can be implemented on bulk Si wafers. The fabricated 2D GCs operate in the telecom C-band and show an experimental coupling efficiency of - 5 dB with a wafer variation of ± 1.2 dB. Possibilities for efficiency enhancement and improved performance stability in future design generations are outlined and extension toward O-band devices is also investigated.