The present invention relates to the field of integrated photonics. In particular, it concerns a double cladding design for silicon-on-insulator (SOI) optical structures that provides optical isolation while mitigating optical perturbations due to stress.
Compared to other material combinations for photonic integration, silicon-on-insulator is particularly attractive, as it can provide very compact optical circuits. Such optical circuits are usually made by etching part of a thin layer of silicon (typically 220 nm) to define waveguides, the silicon layer lying on top of a buried silicon oxide insulator layer (typically 1 to 3 μm), itself extending on top of a thick silicon substrate. The presence of the buried silicon oxide insulator layer within the wafer can allow an ultrahigh confinement of light within the waveguides of the optical circuits.
Referring to
Silicon oxide is a widely used material for the cladding 32 as its refractive index is low enough to preserve the high index contrast necessary for a high light confinement within the waveguide 30. Silicon oxide is also highly compatible with standard manufacturing processes such as CMOS. However, its thermal expansion coefficient is significantly different than the one of silicon, resulting in significant stress in the cladding 32 and waveguide 30. Apart from the thermal expansion mismatch, intrinsic stress can also be high depending on the deposition technique.
There remains a need for SOI optical structures having improved waveguiding properties.
In accordance with an aspect of the invention, there is provided a silicon-on-insulator optical structure which includes, successively:
Preferably, the thicknesses of the first and second claddings are selected to obtain a satisfactory compromise between light confinement properties and optical isolation of the waveguiding structure. The thickness of the first cladding is preferably selected as small as possible while maintaining suitable confinement of light within the waveguiding structure.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, there is also provided silicon-on-insulator optical structure, comprising, successively:
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is also provided a silicon-on-insulator optical structure which includes, successively, a silicon substrate layer, a silicon oxide insulator layer, a patterned silicon layer defining a waveguiding structure, a silicon oxide first cladding layer providing light confinement within the waveguiding structure, and a silicon nitride second cladding layer.
Preferably, the second cladding layer optically isolates the waveguiding structure and reduces stresses in the optical structure.
According to yet another aspect of the invention, there is further provided a method for making a silicon-on-insulator optical structure, comprising:
Other features and advantages of the present invention will be better understood upon a reading of embodiments thereof, with reference to the appended drawings.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, there is provided a SOI optical structure.
As one skilled in the art will readily understand, the SOI optical structure may be embodied by any integrated circuit or portion of an integrated circuit based on SOI technology. As its name indicates, a Silicon-On-Insulator device includes an insulator layer, typically silicon oxide (SiO2), on which extends a patterned silicon layer. The patterned silicon layer may define one or more waveguides, as required by a given circuit design.
In one application, a SOI optical structure according to an embodiment of the present invention can be of particular use as a MultiMode Interference (MMI) coupler. MMI couplers can be used for various applications such as telecommunications, instrumentation, signal processing and optical sensors. SOI optical structures according to embodiments of the invention can however have different functions than a MMI coupler, such as for example arrayed waveguide gratings (AWG), direction couplers, Y branches and star couplers.
Referring to
The SOI optical structure 34 of
In one embodiment, the waveguide structure may define a plurality of waveguides forming a multimode interference coupler (MMI coupler). By way of example, a top view of a typical 2×4 MMI coupler 60 is shown in
Multimode interference (MMI) couplers are widely used in integrated photonics. A MMI coupler is a multimode waveguide section between sets of input and output waveguides, which are typically singlemode. They are used to split, combine or mix optical signals. 2×4 MMI couplers are of particular interest, as they provide the functionality of a 90° optical hybrid mixer, a key component of a coherent receiver. A MMI coupler performs the splitting of the input optical signals among 4 output waveguides and provides, at each output, a mix of the two input optical signals with their relative phases being different for each of the outputs. By design, these four relative phases are usually in quadrature, as required for the hybrid mixer functionality. A perfect quadrature is obtained assuming that the MMI coupler operates in a paraxial regime and assuming that the multimode section is uniform. Such structures can greatly benefit from the advantages of SOI integrated circuits, if they can meet the corresponding performance requirements.
The SOI optical structure 34 next includes a first cladding layer 48 extending over the silicon layer 40. The first cladding layer 48 therefore fills the void regions 44 of the silicon layer 40 and covers the overall void and raised regions 44 and 46 of the silicon layer 40. The first cladding layer 48 has a refractive index and a thickness providing light confinement within the waveguiding structure, that is, ensure sufficient refractive index contrast between the silicon waveguiding structure 42 and the first cladding layer 48 in order to provide a high mode confinement for the purposes of a target application. As such, the first cladding layer is preferably made of a material having a low refractive index. One skilled in the art will readily understand that by referring to a “low” refractive index, it is understood that the material of the first cladding layer 48 has a refractive index which is small enough with respect to the refractive index of silicon (nSi=3.5) for providing a suitable light confinement within the waveguiding structures 42. In the illustrated embodiment, and by way of example, the first cladding layer 48 is made of silicon oxide, which has a refractive index nSiO2 of 1.45.
It will be further understood that the expression “light confinement” refers to the guiding of one or more light mode within the waveguiding structure such that the light in the travelling mode or modes remains substantially within the silicon waveguide. Of course, as one skilled in the art will readily understand, guided modes present an evanescent field which extends partially in the cladding surrounding the waveguide. the presence of such an evanescent field being considered as within the definition of light confinement. However, interaction of the evanescent field with other components of the optical structure may create losses of light which need to be mitigated, as will be further explained below.
The thickness d of the first cladding layer 48 extending above the raised regions 46 is also a factor which impacts light confinement within the waveguiding structures 42. Increasing the thickness of the first cladding layer may improve the light confinement properties. However, it can be advantageous to have a first cladding layer 48 as thin as possible to minimize stress therein, resulting from the deposition process. In fact, a compressive stress is induced during this process, caused by both the intrinsic chemical structure mismatch between the silicon oxide and the substrate, and temperature-induced variations caused by the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) mismatch when the cool down of the substrate occurs (for example from 400° C., at which the silicon oxide can be deposited, down to ambient temperature). Silicon oxide has a coefficient of thermal expansion (5.4×10−7 K−1) different than the coefficient of thermal expansion of silicon (3.6×10−6 K−1). The global resulting stress is normally in the range of 100-400 MPa compressive, with a typical value of 300 MPa compressive. The stressed silicon oxide cladding layer transmits its stress to the substrate driven by its stiffness. The stiffness is dictated by the layer thickness, thus from a mechanical standpoint, the thickness of the first cladding layer should be kept minimal to insure that the stress is not transferred to the substrate. In some embodiments, the thickness of the first cladding layer is therefore selected so as to be as thin as possible so that the stress it induces is small enough to keep the optical behavior nearly unaffected, while still be thick enough to preserve a high light confinement. In some embodiments, a thickness of the same order of magnitude as that of the silicon layer, for example in the range of 200 to 300 nm, was found to provide an acceptable compromise.
The SOI optical structure 34 next includes a second cladding layer 50 extending over the first cladding layer 48.
In one embodiment, the second cladding layer 50 is preferably of a sufficient thickness to optically isolate the waveguiding structure 42 from external perturbations. For example, in embodiments where a metallized top layer 51 is provided over the second cladding layer 50, the second cladding layer can prevent attenuation of the mode propagating through the guide due to the mode field that would evanescently extent too much up to the metal layer 51. Such an embodiment is shown in
In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, the second cladding layer 50 is designed so that its thickness and mechanical properties reduce stresses in the optical structure 34, for example by compensating for stress inducing forces imposed by the mismatch between the first cladding layer 48 and the silicon layer 40. In this embodiment, the second cladding layer 50 is preferably made of a material having a coefficient of thermal expansion substantially the same as the coefficient of thermal expansion of silicon. The material should also be non-absorbing at the wavelength of operation.
For both embodiments described above, it has been found that when using silicon dioxide as a first cladding layer 48, silicon nitride (Si3N4) can successfully serve as a material of choice for the second cladding layer 50. Other materials could however be used in other embodiments of the invention, providing either optical isolation, reduced stresses or both.
In one embodiment of the invention, a double cladding configuration using the first and second cladding layers described above can improve the performance of SOI optical structures with respect to prior art. Advantageously, the first cladding layer preserves the high index contrast with the silicon waveguide structure but can induce excessive stress as described above. The provision of an appropriate second cladding layer, such as for example a stress-controlled deposition of silicon nitride on the first cladding layer, can provide nearly no stress or even positive stress, for example if using Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD). Moreover, the thermal expansion coefficient of silicon nitride is close to the one of silicon, thus rendering the cladding layers insensitive to thermal stress. However, silicon nitride has a refractive index of 2.0 providing a decrease in the desired high index contrast with silicon. Providing a second cladding layer of silicon nitride on top of a first cladding of silicon oxide itself on top of the silicon layer allows to benefit from the advantages of both materials. The first cladding layer can be made sufficiently thin to avoid excessive impact on optical performance due to stress but thick enough to keep the high index contrast of guiding structures. The second cladding layer provides the remaining required thickness to isolate the optical structures from excess loss due to metal absorption. The silicon nitride layer can also remove part of the stress caused by the silicon oxide layer if deposited with a controlled positive stress.
Still referring to
It will be noted that the thickness of the first cladding layer is measured from the top of the non-etched regions of the silicon layer, although portions of the first cladding layer extend lower, within the non-etched regions of the silicon layer.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for making a SOI optical structure.
The method first includes providing a base which includes a silicon substrate layer, a silicon oxide insulator layer extending over the substrate layer, and a silicon layer over the insulator layer. One skilled in the art will understand that such a SOI base can be fabricated using well known techniques or obtained prefabricated from various manufacturers.
The silicon layer is then patterned to define a waveguiding structure.
The method next involves depositing a first cladding layer, preferably made of silicon oxide, over the silicon layer, the first cladding layer has a refractive index and a thickness providing light confinement with the waveguiding structure. In the illustrated embodiment, a thin layer of 200 nm of silicon oxide was deposited and the measured quadrature (
A second cladding layer is then deposited over the first cladding layer. The second cladding layer optically isolates the waveguiding structure and has a thickness and mechanical properties reducing compressive stresses in the first cladding layer.
In the illustrated embodiment, this was performed in two steps for illustrative purposes. A layer of 400 nm of silicon nitride was first deposited and caused a slight increase of the quadrature phase towards the original values (
The depositing of the cladding layers may be performed by an appropriate process, such as for example Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition, reactive ion beam deposition (IBD), reactive sputtering and RF sputtering.
Of course, numerous modifications could be made to the embodiments described above without departing from the scope of the present invention as defined in the appended claims.
This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/589,994, entitled “Double Cladding Silicon-on-Insulator Optical Structure,” filed Jan. 24, 2012, the entire disclosure of which is hereby expressly incorporated by reference herein.
Number | Date | Country | |
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61589994 | Jan 2012 | US |