Compact Integration of Optical Sources and Detectors on SOI for Optical Interconnects Fabricated in a 200 mm CMOS Pilot Line

Abstract

As the demand for bandwidth increases, optical interconnects are coming closer and closer to the chip. Optical interconnects on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) are desirable as this allows for integration with CMOS and the mature processing can be used for photonic integrated circuits. A heterogeneous integration process can be used to include III-V active optical components on SOI. For dense integration compact sources and detectors are required, but they typically need different epitaxial structures to be efficient which limits the integration density. We propose to use an epitaxial structure, which contains both the layers for a laser and for a detector, hereby enabling very compact integration of sources and detectors. Microdisk lasers and waveguide detectors using this epi were completely fabricated in a 200 mm CMOS pilot line and the results are discussed here.