Athermal Photonic Waveguide With Refractive Index Tuning
Data di pubblicazione
23-09-2014
Codice
EIB.13.002.A
Stato
Disponibile
Data di priorità
08-02-2013
Fase
Stati Uniti
Dipartimento
DIPARTIMENTO DI ELETTRONICA, INFORMAZIONE E BIOINGEGNERIA
Autori
Andrea Melloni, Stefano Grillanda, Francesco Morichetti (PoliMi),A.Cianciamilla, A.M. Agarwal, L.C. Kimerling, J.Michel, V. Raghunathan, V. Singh (MIT)
Descrizione
The invention is a
photonic integrated waveguide which enables to achieve
athermal operation and
trimming functionality simultaneously. As shown in the figure, the invention comprises a core material (e.g. silicon) where the optical field propagates, an under-cladding material (e.g. silica), and a top cladding which includes a layer of a trimmable material (e.g. chalcogenide glass) and a layer for the thermo-optic compensation (e.g. polymer).
The structure of the waveguide enables to compensate the thermal dependence of the core waveguide thanks to the properties of the
thermo-optic compensation layer, and simultaneously to operate a post-fabrication trimming thanks to the presence of the
trimmable material. The dimensions of the core waveguide and the thicknesses of the layers are optimized in order to have the optical field expanding through the trimmable and the thermo-optic compensation layers. The originality and novelty of the invention is to obtain the
two aforementioned functionalities (i.e. thermal compensation and post-fabrication trimming) simultaneously, with the same optical structure.
Campo di applicazione
The main areas of interest, both in the linear and nonlinear regime, are: <b>telecom, datacom, optical interconnect, biosensing, optical processing, and quantum photonics.</b>
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Vantaggi
The invention plays a fundamental role in the <b>control of optical circuits</b>, especially in <b>semiconductor</b>, and most importantly in <b>Silicon Photonics</b>. The invention enables Green Photonics with low power consumption devices, i.e. with:
a) no active heaters or coolers for the tuning of the devices,
b) no active heaters or coolers for the thermal stabilization of the devices.
Stadio di sviluppo
Working prototype
Contatto
licensing.tto@polimi.it
