Silicon Photonic Circuits: On-CMOS Integration, Fiber Optical Coupling, and Packaging

Silicon photonics is a new technology that should at least enable electronics and optics to be integrated on the same optoelectronic circuit chip, leading to the production of low-cost devices on silicon wafers by using standard processes from the microelectronics industry. In order to achieve real-low-cost devices, some challenges need to be taken up concerning the integration technological process of optics with electronics and the packaging of the chip. In this paper, we review recent progress in the packaging of silicon photonic circuits from on-CMOS wafer-level integration to the single-chip package and input/output interconnects. We focus on optical fiber-coupling structures comparing edge and surface couplers. In the following, we detail optical alignment tolerances for both coupling architecture, discussing advantages and drawbacks from the packaging process point of view. Finally, we describe some achievements involving advanced-packaging techniques.

[1]  Paul Philippe,et al.  Dry-film technology as a standard process for passive optical alignment of Silicon Photonics Devices , 2009, 2009 59th Electronic Components and Technology Conference.

[2]  H. Schroder,et al.  g-Pack – a generic testbed package for Silicon photonics devices , 2008, 2008 5th IEEE International Conference on Group IV Photonics.

[3]  Jean-Marc Fedeli,et al.  Silicon photonics packaging : characterization of a waveguide grating coupler and modeling of the fiber coupling ratio , 2007, SPIE OPTO.

[4]  Geert Morthier,et al.  Silicon-on-insulator based nano-photonics: Why, How, What for? , 2005 .

[5]  Dazeng Feng,et al.  Progress in manufactured silicon photonics , 2007, SPIE OPTO.

[6]  J. Witzens,et al.  Monolithically integrated high-speed CMOS photonic transceivers , 2008, 2008 5th IEEE International Conference on Group IV Photonics.

[7]  Laurent Vivien,et al.  Integration issues of a photonic layer on top of a CMOS circuit , 2006, SPIE OPTO.

[8]  Christophe Kopp,et al.  Merging parallel optics packaging and surface mount technologies , 2008, SPIE OPTO.

[9]  Henri Porte,et al.  A micromachined connector for the coupling of optical waveguides and ribbon optical fibers , 2001 .

[10]  Sing H. Lee,et al.  Optoelectronic Packaging for Optical Interconnects , 2006 .

[11]  G. Roelkens,et al.  Compact grating couplers between optical fibers and Silicon-on-Insulator photonic wire waveguides with 69% coupling efficiency , 2006, 2006 Optical Fiber Communication Conference and the National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference.

[12]  R. Beyeler,et al.  Polymer-Waveguide-Based Board-Level Optical Interconnect Technology for Datacom Applications , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Advanced Packaging.

[13]  Stephane Bernabe,et al.  Microelectronic-like packaging for silicon photonics : A 10 Gbps multi-chip-module optical receiver based on Ge-on-Si photodiode , 2010, 3rd Electronics System Integration Technology Conference ESTC.

[14]  Hirofumi Morita,et al.  Spot-size converter for low-loss coupling between 0.3-/spl mu/m-square Si wire waveguides and single-mode fibers , 2002, The 15th Annual Meeting of the IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society.

[15]  R Orobtchouk,et al.  High-Efficiency Light Coupling in a Submicrometric Silicon-on-Insulator Waveguide. , 2000, Applied optics.

[16]  E. Sleeckx,et al.  Highly efficient grating coupler between optical fiber and silicon photonic circuit , 2009, 2009 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics and 2009 Conference on Quantum electronics and Laser Science Conference.

[17]  Eric Zbinden,et al.  Process development for 10 Gb/s small footprint butterfly transmitter , 2003, 53rd Electronic Components and Technology Conference, 2003. Proceedings..

[18]  K. P. Yap,et al.  Mode transformer for miniaturized optical circuits. , 2005, Optics letters.

[19]  Alexei Chelnokov,et al.  Fiber grating couplers for silicon nanophotonic circuits: Design modeling methodology and fabrication tolerances , 2009 .

[20]  M. Lipson,et al.  Nanotaper for compact mode conversion. , 2003, Optics letters.

[21]  G. Roelkens,et al.  Efficient silicon-on-insulator fiber coupler fabricated using 248-nm-deep UV lithography , 2005, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[22]  B. Velsher,et al.  Application-specific optoelectronic packaging , 2002, 52nd Electronic Components and Technology Conference 2002. (Cat. No.02CH37345).

[23]  Ivan P. Kaminow,et al.  Optical Integrated Circuits: A Personal Perspective , 2008, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[24]  D. Taillaert,et al.  A compact two-dimensional grating coupler used as a polarization splitter , 2003, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[25]  H. Melchior,et al.  Integrated optical modeshape adapters in InGaAsP/InP for efficient fiber-to-waveguide coupling , 1993, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[26]  F. Arndt,et al.  Methods for passive fiber chip coupling of integrated optical devices , 2000, 2000 Proceedings. 50th Electronic Components and Technology Conference (Cat. No.00CH37070).

[27]  R. Baets,et al.  Grating Couplers for Coupling between Optical Fibers and Nanophotonic Waveguides , 2006 .

[28]  D. Marris-Morini,et al.  Incorporation of a Photonic Layer at the Metallizations Levels of a CMOS Circuit , 2006, 3rd IEEE International Conference on Group IV Photonics, 2006..

[29]  Jean-Marc Fedeli.  Si and InP integration in the HELIOS project , 2009, 2009 35th European Conference on Optical Communication.

[30]  Robert A. Boudreau,et al.  Passive Micro-Optical Alignment Methods , 2005 .

[31]  Wim Bogaerts,et al.  How to bring nanophotonics to application - silicon photonics packaging , 2008 .

[32]  Stéphane Bernabé.  Advanced packaging concepts for low-cost optoelectronic devices , 2006, Workshop on Optical Components for Broadband Communication.

[33]  Kazuhiko Kurata,et al.  Automated mass production line for optical module using passive alignment technique , 2000, 2000 Proceedings. 50th Electronic Components and Technology Conference (Cat. No.00CH37070).

[34]  J. Fédéli,et al.  Low-Loss ($<$ 1 dB) and Polarization-Insensitive Edge Fiber Couplers Fabricated on 200-mm Silicon-on-Insulator Wafers , 2010, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[35]  S. Murthy,et al.  Large-Scale InP Photonic Integrated Circuits: Enabling Efficient Scaling of Optical Transport Networks , 2007, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics.

[36]  R.B. Lee,et al.  Alignment-insensitive coupling for PLC-based surface mount photonics , 2004, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[37]  Jean-Marc Fédéli,et al.  Silicon photonics: ready to wafer-bonding fibre grating coupler , 2010, OPTO.