Reliability of lasers on silicon substrates for silicon photonics

Abstract Scalable manufacturing of high-performance lasers and photonic integrated circuits are critical to meeting growing demand for bandwidth in data centers, high-performance computers, and to support 5G infrastructure. All these markets require the high-volume, low-cost manufacturing that silicon photonics is best poised to provide. The main challenge for high-performance photonic integrated circuits on a silicon platform has historically been the lack of an efficient light source. Since the 1980s, heteroepitaxial GaAs-based lasers operating continuous wave at room temperature have been achievable on Si, but these devices could typically only operate for a few hours or even minutes before failure. Alternatively, InP-based heteroepitaxial lasers showed promising reliability, but extremely low power conversion efficiency and limited manufacturability. Only since the 2010s have lasers on silicon achieved commercially relevant reliability. Through heterogeneous integration via wafer bonding III–V lasers to Si, commercial products with high-performance and excellent reliability have been demonstrated. Looking forward, epitaxial approaches could be more favorable due to the scalability of growth on 300 mm substrates relative to bonding from small III–V wafers, but the reliability issues are more challenging due to high densities of crystalline defects. Quantum dot (QD) lasers have shown a unique robustness against a key class of defects—dislocations—and show promise for future commercial reliability. This chapter highlights the recent developments and unique reliability concerns of heterogeneous and epitaxial integration and what has been done thus far to understand and solve these problems. Several prospective technologies are described in terms of their current status and future promise. Heterogeneous integration via wafer bonding and heteroepitaxial integration of QD lasers are discussed in detail for, respectively, their existing commercial performance and near-term future promise. The chapter concludes with a summary of the current state of reliability of lasers on silicon and recommendations on where the field should focus future efforts to achieve the goal of reliable, low-cost, high-performance photonic integrated circuits on a silicon platform.

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