Elenion Technologies, LLC

Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy

Coriant Advanced Technology, LLC

Ari Jason Novack

Michael J Hochberg

Ruizhi Shi

Thomas Wetteland Baehr-Jones

Yi Zhang

Yang Liu

Matthew Streshinsky

Daniel Jacob Blumenthal

Nathan A Nuttall

Holger N Klein

Peter David Magill

Ran Ding

Kishore Padmaraju

Kishor V Desai

Yangjin Ma

David Henry Kinghorn

Alexander V Rylyakov

Alexandre Horth

Alex Rylyakov

Saeed Fathololoumi

Yaojia Chen

Amir Hanjani

Eu-Jin Andy Lim

Jean Claude Labarrie

Anna Mikami

Michael Caverley

An apparatus includes a lithium niobate (LN) layer, and a planar electro-optical modulator having at least one hybrid optical core segment formed of a portion of the LN layer and an optical guiding rib. The optical guiding rib may be located in a top silicon layer of a silicon photonics (SiP) chip, to which a thin-film LN chip is flip-chip mounted, and may be coupled to optical waveguide cores in a first silicon core layer of the SiP chip. One or more drive electrodes are disposed between a substrate of the SiP chip and the LN layer. In some embodiments hybrid optical core segments may include silicon nitride core segments and may form an MZM configured to be differentially or dual-differentially driven.

Optical hybrid-waveguide electro-optical modulator

An integrated optical device fabricated in the back end of line process located within the vertical span of the metal stack and having one or more advantages over a corresponding integrated optical device fabricated in the silicon on insulator layer.

Back end of line process integrated optical device fabrication

A photonic chip includes a device layer and a port layer, with an optical port located at the port layer. Inter-layer optical couplers are provided for coupling light between the device and port layers. The inter-layer couplers may be configured to couple signal light but block pump light or other undesired wavelength from entering the device layer, operating as an input filter. The port layer may accommodate other light pre-processing functions, such as optical power splitting, that are undesirable in the device layer.

Input waveguide arrangement in a photonic chip

An underfill adhesive may be used to mechanically stabilize a photonic integrated circuit chip (PIC) onto an electrical substrate; however, when the PIC is optically coupled to an external optical fiber at or near an edge of the chip, e.g. using an edge coupler, the underfill may flow into the optical interface impacting optical coupling quality. A photonic integrated circuit apparatus according to the disclosure comprises an electrical substrate, which includes a cavity underneath the edge coupler for preventing underfill material from entering the optical interface by impeding capillary action thereof.

Optical coupling with undercut protection from underfill

A photonic interface for an electronic circuit is disclosed. The photonic interface includes a photonic integrated circuit having a modulator and a photodetector, and an optical fiber or fibers for optical communication with another optical circuit. A modulator driver chip may be mounted directly on the photonic integrated circuit. The optical fibers may be placed in v-grooves of a fiber support, which may include at least one lithographically defined alignment feature for optical alignment to the silicon photonic circuit.

Photonic interface for electronic circuit

In order to bond an opto-electronic device with fiber pigtails to a larger PCB, the fibers need to be secured in place so that they don't become entangled in the bonding elements resulting in misalignment of the electronic connectors and of the optics. Accordingly, there is a need for packaged parts, which enables customers to use their own surface mount technology (SMT) bonding process without the fiber pigtails interfering with the process. Ideally, the fiber holder device is disposable and provides a spool and a fiber track to guide the fibers from the package to the spool. Ideally, an opening is provided through the spool to enable the components on the opto-electronic device to be accessed.

Fiber holder

A metal-contact-free photodetector includes an optically absorbing material, e.g. germanium, mounted on a device layer of a photonic integrated circuit, which includes a p-type contact and an n-type contact on opposite sides of a waveguide. The contacts are comprise of a plurality of independently doped regions ranging from lowest doped adjacent the waveguide to highest doped remote from the waveguide. An additional element is to add p and/or n doping on one or more of the sidewalls of the optically absorbing material, e.g Germanium. The advantage compared to the previously disclosed metal-contact-free photodetectors is that the bandwidth is much higher, and full speed is attained at lower voltage.

Metal contact free photodetector with sidewall doping

A Ge-on-Si photodetector constructed without doping or contacting Germanium by metal is described. Despite the simplified fabrication process, the device has responsivity of 1.24 A/W, corresponding to 99.2% quantum efficiency. Dark current is 40 nA at &#x2212;4 V reverse bias. 3-dB bandwidth is 30 GHz.

Germanium metal-contact-free near-IR photodetector

Conventional hybrid photonic integrated circuits (PIC) combine one type of semiconductor platform for the main PIC, and a different type of semiconductor platform for a secondary chip. Conventional mounting processes include forming a recess in the main PIC, and mating electrical connectors from the secondary chip and the main PIC within the recess. Mating the first and second electrical connectors in the recess increases the complexity of forming the main PIC, and hampers heat dissipation from secondary chip through oxide layers in the main PIC. Providing a conductive, e.g. redistribution, layer from the first electrode along the bottom and sides of the recess eliminates the complexity in forming the main PIC, and enables the first electrical connector to be mounted directly onto a more thermally conductive substrate material.

Flip chip bonding onto a photonic integrated circuit

A composite optical waveguide is constructed using an array of waveguide cores, in which one core is tapered to a larger dimension, so that all the cores are used as a composite input port, and the one larger core is used as an output port. In addition, transverse couplers can be fabricated in a similar fashion. The waveguide cores are preferably made of SiN. In some cases, a layer of SiN which is provided as an etch stop is used as at least one of the waveguide cores. The waveguide cores can be spaced away from a semiconductor layer so as to minimize loses.

Optical coupler comprising vertically offset waveguide cores

Two semiconductor chips are optically aligned to form a hybrid semiconductor device. Both chips have optical waveguides and alignment surface positioned at precisely-defined complementary vertical offsets from optical axes of the corresponding waveguides, so that the waveguides are vertically aligned when one of the chips is placed atop the other with their alignment surface abutting each other. The position of the at least one of the alignment surface in a layer stack of its chip is precisely defined by epitaxy. The chips are bonded at offset bonding pads with the alignment surfaces abutting in the absence of bonding material therebetween.

Optically aligned hybrid semiconductor device and method

A test system for determining a surface characteristic of a chip facet comprises a chip, which has a facet and includes a waveguide, a detector, and a processor. The on-chip waveguide is configured to direct test light towards the facet, where a portion of the test light is reflected and a portion of the test light is transmitted. The detector is configured to measure an amount of the reflected portion or the transmitted portion, and the processor is configured to determine a surface characteristic of the facet, such as a facet angle, a facet curvature, and/or a facet roughness, on the basis of the measured amount.

Methods, test structures, and test systems for determining a surface characteristic of a chip facet

A skew compensation apparatus and method. In an optical system that uses optical signals, skew may be generated as the optical signals are processed from an input optical signal to at least two electrical signals representative of the phase-differentiated optical signals. A compensation of the skew is provided by including an optical delay line in the path of the optical signal that does not suffer the skew (e.g., that serves as the time base for the skew measurement). The optical delay line introduces a delay Tequal to the delay suffered by the optical signal that is not taken as the time base. The two signals are thereby corrected for skew.

Growing community of inventors

New York, CA, United States of America

Ari Jason Novack