We report on the progress of our efforts to apply silicon nitride photonic integrated circuits (PIC) to the miniaturization of optical coherence tomography (OCT) with the goal of facilitating its widespread use in ophthalmology at the point of care. In particular, we highlight the design and optical characterization of photonic building blocks allowing the realization of a silicon nitride PIC-based multi-channel swept-source OCT system in the 1060 nm wavelength region. Apart from waveguide structures, these building blocks include 3D-printed microlenses on the PIC end facets for efficient light coupling to and from the PIC.
Guest Editors Jeroen Missinne, Yanlu Li, Stefan Mohrdiek, and Padraic Morrissey introduce the Special Section on Packaging Challenges of Photonic Integrated Circuits.
Managing the temperature of photonic chips within intricate electro-optic packages poses a notable challenge concerning the thermal crosstalk between the photonic chip, electronic chip, and the chip–fiber connection point. This is a multifaceted problem and requires packaging solutions that cannot only address high-performance thermal management but must also be scalable to high volumes. Glass has long been thought of as a suitable platform for next-generation photonic packaging due to its low thermal conductivity, which minimizes unwanted heat transfer between electronic and photonic components. Achieving proper thermal isolation between the chips and the chip–fiber interface necessitates a microscale thermal solution that guarantees accurate temperature regulation of the photonic circuitry without disrupting the optical coupling interface with the fiber array, due to the presence of epoxy used for fiber attachment. We propose a technique for the development of a substrate-integrated microthermoelectric cooler (SimTEC) for the effective temperature control of the electronic and photonic integrated devices. The proposed device uses glass substrate vias that are half-filled with p and n-type thermoelectric materials and the other half with copper. A COMSOL multiphysics model is developed to study the variations in the cooling performance of this SimTEC device based on changes in the via parameters. Interestingly, the maximum range of temperature gradient variation for SimTEC is 6 times greater compared to that of equivalent free-standing micro-TEC pillars. However, there are some challenges associated with implementing this method, as the temperature gradient (or cooling effect) achieved by SimTEC still falls short of that achieved by the free-standing micro-TEC pillars.
Micro-transfer printing (μTP) has been widely used to integrate photonic components, such as lasers, modulators, photodetectors, micro-LEDs, on Si photonic platforms. There is a push toward the μTP of optical components in photonics packaging as it enables wafer-scale integration with high alignment accuracy. We demonstrate for the first time the μTP of thick optical components, such as micro-lenses, in the range of 250 to 1000 μm thickness. We explore the reliability of bonding such components using an ultraviolet (UV) curable epoxy and compare them with the current state of the art. The results show that the average shear strength of lenses bonded with InterVia is 19 MPa which is higher than currently used optical epoxies. Also, μTP process has no effect on the surface roughness and microstructure of lenses. Using our approach, we demonstrate how thick silicon and fused silica lenses can be integrated into photonic integrated circuits (PICs) using a tether-free process that is highly scalable and robust.
Laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) sensors can measure skin vibrations originating from propagating superficial arterial pulse waves, which can be used to assess arterial stiffness and identify stenosis and heart failure. A key challenge is to get sufficient diffusely reflected power from bare skin in order to avoid the use of a retroreflective patch. Here we report a prototype, enabled by silicon photonics, that can directly measure the vibrations of bare human skin. We demonstrate a resolution better than 10 pm/sqrt(Hz) when the skin surface is placed at the focal plane of the sensing beams. This result holds great promise for the targeted cardiovascular applications.
PIXAPP, the world’s first open-access Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) Assembly and Packaging Pilot line provides companies with standardised packaging solutions along the entire supply chain for prototyping and pilot-scale production.
Silicon nitride waveguide based photonic integrated circuits (PICs) are intensively investigated for a wide range of sensing applications in the visible to sub 1-µm near-infrared spectral region. The monolithic co-integration of silicon photodiodes and read-out electronics offers additional benefits in terms of performance and miniaturization. We discuss challenging aspects related to the efficient coupling and routing of light to, from, and within PICs and present interfacing photonic building blocks offering potential solutions. We demonstrate the suitability of these interfacing building blocks by using them for the realization of a PIC-based multi-channel optical coherence tomography concept at 840 nm.
Non-invasive monitoring of cardiovascular diseases has been explored by means of laser Doppler vibrometry (LDV). In previous work, we have developed a handheld 6-beam on-chip LDV-device based on silicon photonics that can simultaneously measure the skin vibrations induced by cardiac action in multiple positions. This allows for the estimation of the pulse wave velocity (PWV), which is the current gold standard for evaluating arterial stiffness. The demonstrator has been used in a series of clinical feasibility studies. However, the system required the application of a retro-reflective (RR) patch to the skin prior to the measurement in order to enhance skin reflection. The use of the RR patch reduces the device usability and may also impact the measurement results. In this work, we bring the concept one step further by eliminating the need for the RR patch during the measurement. The diffuse reflection from the skin leads to the low intensity of the back-reflected light detected by the interferometric readout system of the LDV. In order to increase the reflection signal level, we propose to operate the LDV at 1310nm where skin reflection is relatively strong while still being insensitive to skin tones. Furthermore, the optical imaging system between LDV-chip and skin has been designed for optimal signal strength in combination with sufficient depth of focus. We report on LDV measurements without using RR patch, and on the details of the optimized optical system.
High bandwidth density silicon photonic interconnects offer the potential to address the massive increase in bandwidth demands for data center traffic and high performance computing. One of the major challenges in realizing silicon photonics transceivers is the integration and packing of photonic ICs (PIC) with electronic ICs (EIC). This paper presents our version one, 2.5D integrated multi-chip module (MCM) transceiver for 4 channel wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) operation, targeting 10 Gbps per channel. We identify five key areas critical to successful integration of MCM transceivers, which we have used in developing our version two MCM transceiver: integration architecture, equivalent circuit model development, PIC to EIC interface modelling, MCM I/O design, and design for assembly.
A swept source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) system with the interferometer engine being a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) has been developed. Furthermore, an Arrayed Waveguide Grating (AWG), representing a grating on a PIC, for spectral domain OCT (SD-OCT) has been integrated in a fiber-based OCT system. With measured sensitivities of ~87 dB (SS-OCT) and ~80 dB (SD-OCT), scattering tissue imaging becomes feasible for OCT-on-chip systems. In this study, we present two OCT-on-chip systems and first results of biological tissue imaging in-vivo and exvivo.
The challenges associated with the photonic packaging of silicon devices is often underestimated and remains technically challenging. In this paper, we review some key enabling technologies that will allow us to overcome the current bottleneck in silicon photonic packaging; while also describing the recent developments in standardisation, including the establishment of PIXAPP as the worlds first open-access PIC packaging and assembly Pilot Line. These developments will allow the community to move from low volume prototype photonic packaged devices to large scale volume manufacturing, where the full commercialisation of PIC technology can be realised.
In this paper, we present a novel 1x2 multi-mode-interferometer-Fabry-Perot (MMI-FP) laser diode, which demonstrated tunable single frequency operation with more than 30dB side mode suppression ratio (SMSR) and a tuning range of 25nm in the C and L bands, as well as a 750 kHz linewidth. These lasers do not require material regrowth and high resolution gratings; resulting in a simpler process that can significantly increase the yield and reduce the cost.
To compensate for velocity mismatch in travelling wave opto-electronic devices, the microwave velocity of the propagating RF signal is reduced by introducing capacitively loaded elements. For high speed operation, these elements must be electrically isolated from one another, which is typically achieved by using ion-implantation to render the p-doped material non-conducting. We propose and demonstrate through optical and electrical simulations that ion-implantation can be avoided by using a quasi-shallow etch to electrically isolate the capacitive elements. High isolation can be achieved using such an etch without introducing additional losses to the propagating optical signal.
In this paper, we demonstrate a novel InGaAlAs/InGaAlAs quantum well multimode-interferometer-Fabry-Perot laser
diode (MMI-FP LD) in which a 1x3 multimode interferometer is inserted into the conventional FP laser waveguide to
generate single wavelength emission. The designed and fabricated laser diode shows a single longitudinal mode lasing
with side mode suppression ratio (SMSR) of 25dBm at a wavelength of 1567nm with driving current of 170mA and can
be tuned over a certain range by adjusting the driving current. A laser diode incorporating a 1x3 MMI and three single
mode waveguide outputs is also proposed which could be potentially used to generate a 3-channel single longitudinal
mode coherent source using injection locking. The simple structure of this single longitudinal mode laser significantly
eases the fabrication processing enabling an increase in the yield and a reduction in the cost compared with the
traditional single mode lasers.
In this paper, a single facet slotted Fabry-Perot (FP) laser is demonstrated to provide tunable, single mode operation and
has been monolithically integrated into a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) with semiconductor optical amplifiers and a
multimode interference coupler. These lasers are designed by incorporating slots into the ridge of traditional FP cavity
lasers to achieve single mode output, integrability and tunability. With the feature size of the slots around 1μm, standard
photolithographic techniques can be used in the fabrication of the devices. This provides a time and cost advantage in
comparison to ebeam or holographic lithography as used for defining gratings in distributed feedback (DFB) or
distrusted Bragg reflector (DBR) lasers, which are typically used in PICs. The competitive integrable single mode laser
also enables the PIC to be fabricated using only one epitaxial growth and one etch process as is done with standard FP
lasers. This process simplicity can reduce the cost and increase the yield.
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