High-Performance Photonic Integrated Circuits on Silicon

TLDR

Heterogeneous integration of III–V semiconductor photonics with silicon foundry technology enables low‑cost, high‑performance photonic integrated circuits. This technology enables cost‑effective photonic integrated circuits for microwave photonics and data communications. The authors demonstrate highly reliable quantum‑dot lasers with sub‑2 mA threshold and >100‑year lifetimes, isolator‑free operation via reduced linewidth enhancement, 1.5 Hz‑accurate optical frequency synthesis, and high‑dynamic‑range microwave photonic links and scalable optical switching for hyperscale datacenters.

Abstract

Heterogeneous integration of III–V semiconductor photonics combined with silicon foundry technology enables low-cost, high-performance photonic integrated circuits. Highly reliable lasers using epitaxial deposition of quantum dot lasers, with <2 mA threshold and lifetime >>100 years at 35 C have been demonstrated at University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) and can be manufactured at wafer scale. Reduction in the linewidth enhancement factor allows isolator-free operation. This technology enables cost-effective photonic integrated circuits for applications such as microwave photonics and data communications. Optical frequency synthesis with ∼1.5 Hz accuracy is demonstrated using heterogeneous integration. Silicon photonics applications that will benefit from future heterogeneous integration are also demonstrated, including high dynamic range microwave photonic links and optical switching technology that scales to hyperscale datacenters with hundreds of thousands of servers.