Photonic Integrated Circuit Based on Hybrid III–V/Silicon Integration

This paper summarizes the recent advances of integrated hybrid InP/SOI lasers and transmitters based on edge coupling. First, we review the different integration methods between III–V material and silicon. Then, we focus on using an external III–V chip coupled via edge coupling to our silicon photonic integrated circuit. The paper reports on the results of wavelength tunable lasers containing one or two ring resonators as well as an integrated reflectivity tunable mirror. We demonstrate that a wide thermal tuning range, exceeding the C band, with a high side mode suppression ratio above 35 dB can be achieved. Design of external silicon cavities enables the realization of a broad range of on-chip functionalities as well as advanced hybrid transmitters. Parallel wavelength tunable cavities and compact variable optical attenuator-controlled arrayed waveguide gratings on silicon are integrated with a reflective semiconductor optical amplifiers, creating fast wavelength switching lasers. Furthermore, integrated transmitters that combine silicon modulators with tunable hybrid III–V/Si lasers are reported. The integrated transmitter for on–off keying signal generation exhibits more than 30 nm wavelength tunability and excellent bit-error-rate performance up to 40 Gb/s. A multichannel integrated transmitter is then reported with combined silicon-based arrayed waveguide gratings laser cavity and multiple ring modulators. Finally, an advanced wavelength-tunable hybrid III–V/Si transmitter with two microring modulators nested in a Mach–Zehnder interferometer is demonstrated for quadrature phase-shift keying generation where a BPSK signal is generated by each ring.