Photonic integrated circuit components based on amorphous silicon-on-insulator technology

We present integrated-optic building blocks and functional photonic devices based on amorphous silicon-on-insulator technology. Efficient deep-etched fiber-to-chip grating couplers, low-loss single-mode photonic wire waveguides, and compact power splitters are presented. Based on the sub-μm photonic wires, 2 × 2 Mach-Zehnder interferometers and add/drop microring resonators (MRRs) with low device footprints and high finesse up to 200 were realized and studied. Compact polarization rotators and splitters with ≥10 dB polarization extinction ratio were fabricated for the polarization management on-chip. The tuning and trimming capabilities of the material platform are demonstrated with efficient microheaters and a permanent device trimming method, which enabled the realization of energy-efficient photonic circuits. Wavelength multiplexers in the form of cascaded filter banks and 4 × 4 routers based on MRR switches are presented. Fabrication imperfections were analyzed and permanently corrected by an accurate laser-trimming method, thus enabling eight-channel multiplexers with record low metrics of sub-mW static power consumption and ≤1°C temperature overhead. The high quality of the functional devices, the high tuning efficiency, and the excellent trimming capabilities demonstrate the potential to realize low-cost, densely integrated, and ultralow-power 3D-stacked photonic circuits on top of CMOS microelectronics.