Integrated silicon photonic MEMS

• Published in: Microsystems & nanoengineering Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 27 - 22
• Main Authors: Quack, Niels, Takabayashi, Alain Yuji, Sattari, Hamed, Edinger, Pierre, Jo, Gaehun, Bleiker, Simon J., Errando-Herranz, Carlos, Gylfason, Kristinn B., Niklaus, Frank, Khan, Umar, Verheyen, Peter, Mallik, Arun Kumar, Lee, Jun Su, Jezzini, Moises, Zand, Iman, Morrissey, Padraic, Antony, Cleitus, O’Brien, Peter, Bogaerts, Wim
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 20.03.2023; Springer Nature B.V; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 639/624/1111; 639/925/927; 639/925/927/359; Broadband; Component reliability; Data processing; Electromechanical devices; Engineering; Foundries; Germanium; Information processing; Integrated circuits; Interfaces; Large scale integration; Microelectromechanical systems; Modulators; Neuromodulation; Optical communication; Optics; Phase shifters; Photodiodes; Photonics; Power consumption; Power management; Quantum computing; Quantum phenomena; Silicon; Tuning; Very large scale integration; Wavelength division multiplexing; Other photonics; NEMS; Nanoscale devices
• ISSN: 2055-7434; 2096-1030; 2055-7434
• DOI: 10.1038/s41378-023-00498-z

Silicon photonics has emerged as a mature technology that is expected to play a key role in critical emerging applications, including very high data rate optical communications, distance sensing for autonomous vehicles, photonic-accelerated computing, and quantum information processing. The success of silicon photonics has been enabled by the unique combination of performance, high yield, and high-volume capacity that can only be achieved by standardizing manufacturing technology. Today, standardized silicon photonics technology platforms implemented by foundries provide access to optimized library components, including low-loss optical routing, fast modulation, continuous tuning, high-speed germanium photodiodes, and high-efficiency optical and electrical interfaces. However, silicon’s relatively weak electro-optic effects result in modulators with a significant footprint and thermo-optic tuning devices that require high power consumption, which are substantial impediments for very large-scale integration in silicon photonics. Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology can enhance silicon photonics with building blocks that are compact, low-loss, broadband, fast and require very low power consumption. Here, we introduce a silicon photonic MEMS platform consisting of high-performance nano-opto-electromechanical devices fully integrated alongside standard silicon photonics foundry components, with wafer-level sealing for long-term reliability, flip-chip bonding to redistribution interposers, and fibre-array attachment for high port count optical and electrical interfacing. Our experimental demonstration of fundamental silicon photonic MEMS circuit elements, including power couplers, phase shifters and wavelength-division multiplexing devices using standardized technology lifts previous impediments to enable scaling to very large photonic integrated circuits for applications in telecommunications, neuromorphic computing, sensing, programmable photonics, and quantum computing.