Integrated silicon photonic MEMS

Niels Quack; Alain Yuji Takabayashi; Hamed Sattari; Pierre Edinger; Gaehun Jo; Simon J Bleiker; Carlos Errando-Herranz; Kristinn B Gylfason; Frank Niklaus; Umar Khan; Peter Verheyen; Arun Kumar Mallik; Jun Su Lee; Moises Jezzini; Padraic Morrissey; Cleitus Antony; Peter O'Brien; Wim Bogaerts

doi:10.1038/s41378-023-00498-z

Integrated silicon photonic MEMS

Microsyst Nanoeng. 2023 Mar 20:9:27. doi: 10.1038/s41378-023-00498-z. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Niels Quack^{1

2}, Alain Yuji Takabayashi¹, Hamed Sattari^{1

3}, Pierre Edinger⁴, Gaehun Jo⁴, Simon J Bleiker⁴, Carlos Errando-Herranz⁴, Kristinn B Gylfason⁴, Frank Niklaus⁴, Umar Khan⁵, Peter Verheyen⁶, Arun Kumar Mallik⁷, Jun Su Lee⁷, Moises Jezzini⁷, Padraic Morrissey⁷, Cleitus Antony⁷, Peter O'Brien⁷, Wim Bogaerts⁵

Affiliations

¹ École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
² School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW 2006 Australia.
³ Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM), 2002 Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
⁴ Division of Micro and Nanosystems, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 114 28 Stockholm, Sweden.
⁵ Department of Information Technology, Photonics Research Group, Ghent University - IMEC, Technologiepark-Zwijnaarde 126, 9052 Gent, Belgium.
⁶ imec vzw. 3DSIP Department, Si Photonics Group, Kapeldreef 75, 3001 Leuven, Belgium.
⁷ Tyndall National Institute, Lee Maltings Complex Dyke Parade, Cork, T12 R5CP Ireland.

Abstract

Silicon photonics has emerged as a mature technology that is expected to play a key role in critical emerging applications, including very high data rate optical communications, distance sensing for autonomous vehicles, photonic-accelerated computing, and quantum information processing. The success of silicon photonics has been enabled by the unique combination of performance, high yield, and high-volume capacity that can only be achieved by standardizing manufacturing technology. Today, standardized silicon photonics technology platforms implemented by foundries provide access to optimized library components, including low-loss optical routing, fast modulation, continuous tuning, high-speed germanium photodiodes, and high-efficiency optical and electrical interfaces. However, silicon's relatively weak electro-optic effects result in modulators with a significant footprint and thermo-optic tuning devices that require high power consumption, which are substantial impediments for very large-scale integration in silicon photonics. Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology can enhance silicon photonics with building blocks that are compact, low-loss, broadband, fast and require very low power consumption. Here, we introduce a silicon photonic MEMS platform consisting of high-performance nano-opto-electromechanical devices fully integrated alongside standard silicon photonics foundry components, with wafer-level sealing for long-term reliability, flip-chip bonding to redistribution interposers, and fibre-array attachment for high port count optical and electrical interfacing. Our experimental demonstration of fundamental silicon photonic MEMS circuit elements, including power couplers, phase shifters and wavelength-division multiplexing devices using standardized technology lifts previous impediments to enable scaling to very large photonic integrated circuits for applications in telecommunications, neuromorphic computing, sensing, programmable photonics, and quantum computing.

Keywords: NEMS; Nanoscale devices; Other photonics.