Application of Photonics

Optical interconnect systems

As information rates inside digital electronic systems are growing, the bandwidth of traditional copper interconnects is increasingly limited by signal distortion, power consumption, cross-talk and pin-out capacity. Optical interconnects are viable alternatives as they offer higher bandwidth, lower price and lower power dissipation compared to standard copper interconnects.

To totally exploit the advantages of optical interconnects over their electrical counterparts at the inter-chip level, it is required to introduce the optical access directly on the digital CMOS chip. This demands tight integration of optics with the digital CMOS chip. A consortium of 10 organizations has built a system demonstrator, in which two-dimensional laser and detector arrays are integrated on the CMOS chip using flip-chip technologies. Data between chips is transported over a two-dimensional optical fiber ferrule, which interfaces to the packaged chips with optical access.

Also for future generation electronic circuits, optical interconnect at the intra-chip level is quite promising. But to be acceptable to the microelectronics industry, severe constraints are imposed on the style of the optical interconnect layer. All fabrication steps really should be compatible with future generations of electronic circuits and the total extra price incurred should stay inexpensive. This means that as numerous fabrication steps as feasible should be wafer-scale processes. As a result, investigating in the feasibility of adding a photonic interconnect layer on leading of silicon ICs is carried out. This interconnect layer is fabricated by a combination of wafer bonding and wafer-scale processing steps. It is planar and will be built from a high-density passive optical wiring circuit integrated with InP-based sources and detectors making use of a wafer bonding approach. SOI-waveguides allowing for very high-density wiring are becoming developed and fabricated making use of standard CMOS-processing tactics. The III-V epi-material for the active photonic devices is

Telecommunication systems

In the region of optical communications, work has been continued on tunable laser diodes and optical regenerators, two components which are regarded as keys for future all-optical networks. In the past new varieties of widely tunable laser diodes has been successfully designed and characterized. This year, attention has focused on the further optimization of those laser diodes and on their direct modulation behavior C11818, RP107

Optical performance monitoring making use of asynchronous signal histograms has proven to be very beneficial in quite a few experimental setups. In analysis a signal independent asynchronous histogram construction approach employing only a 2R regenerator and an adjustable attenuator, thereby avoiding complicated sampling systems and high-frequency electronics, is developed. A theoretical study was performed, defining the minimal requirements to the 2R regenerator utilised, and several case studies using experimental information were investigated. A simulation platform was developed creating the extension to other regenerator configurations probable. It shows that if an suitable regenerator is obtainable, signal monitoring of any optical data signal should be achievable.

Sensor applications

Optical sensors are immune to electromagnetic interference and can be utilized in harsh environments. They also present excellent sensitivity, linearity and stability. Commercial applications contain physical sensing (e.g. strain) and chemical or biological sensing. Currently, most optical sensors are based on fiber optics or free of charge space optics, but INTEC’s study deals with integrating the sensor functions on photonic ICs.

A micro-fluidic flow cell is constructed so that biological samples can be flown over the sensor in a controlled manner. The initial tests for the sensing of an avidin-biotin binding are accomplished. In collaboration with the Molecular Biology Group (UGent, VIB) and the Polymer Analysis Group (UGent) a style for SOI multi-array sensors and their surface treatment is created.

PHOTONICS

Photonics is the science of generating, controlling, and detecting photons, especially in the visible and near infra-red spectrum, but also extending to the ultraviolet (.2 – .35 µm wavelength), lengthy-wave infrared (8 – 12 µm wavelength), and far-infrared/THz portion of the spectrum (e.g., 2-four THz corresponding to 75-150 µm wavelength) where right now quantum cascade lasers are being actively developed. Photonics is an outgrowth of the first practical semiconductor light emitters invented in the early 1960s at General Electric, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, IBM, and RCA and created practical by Zhores Alferov and Dmitri Z. Garbuzov and collaborators working at the Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute and practically simultaneously by Izuo Hayashi and Mort Panish working at Bell Telephone Laboratories. Photonics most normally operates at frequencies on the order of hundreds of terahertz.

Just as applications of electronics have expanded significantly because the initial transistor was invented in 1948, the exclusive applications of photonics continue to emerge. Those which are established as economically essential applications for semiconductor photonic devices contain optical information recording, fiber optic telecommunications, laser printing (based on xerography), displays, and optical pumping of high-power lasers. The possible applications of photonics are virtually unlimited and contain chemical synthesis, medical diagnostics, on-chip information communication, laser defense, and fusion energy to name a number of fascinating additional examples.

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