The present invention relates to thermo optic devices, such as optical waveguides. In particular, it relates to a resonator for frequency coupling between input and output waveguides of a thermo optic device. Even more particularly, it relates to an efficiently formed resonator having increased bandwidth.
The art of making and developing new uses for thermo optic devices continues to emerge. Presently, thermo optic devices are used as filters, switches, multiplexers, waveguides, and a host of other semiconductor and optical transmission devices.
With reference to
In forming the device, the lower cladding is deposited on the substrate. An intermediate layer, for the waveguides and resonator, is deposited on the lower cladding, photo patterned and etched. The upper cladding is deposited on the waveguides and resonator. In an alternate formation process, the lower cladding 206 is an oxidation of a silicon substrate with the waveguides, resonator and upper cladding being formed in the same manner.
The inherent characteristics of a resonator, such as its size, shape, composition, etc., may vary greatly from resonator to resonator as a function of the particular application in which the thermo optic device is to be used. The characteristics of all resonators, however, are generally selected in such a manner to eliminate crosstalk between the input and output waveguides at undesirable frequencies and to resonate signals (i.e., prolong and/or intensify) at desirable frequencies. These desirable frequencies are typically defined in a bandwidth of some length about a center frequency.
In the representative prior art embodiment shown in
To set the bandwidth, an aspect ratio is adjusted in an area where the waveguide and resonator front or face one another. For example, in
Since the resonator 122 and the input and output waveguides 118, 120 are formed together during the same process steps as described above, the depth, D, of the resonator is essentially fixed as the same depth of the waveguides and therefore the resonator bandwidth is fixed. Moreover, changes in depth that result in increased resonator bandwidth are not trivially accomplished and often result in complicated manufacturing processes and excessive resource and financial expenditures.
Accordingly, the thermo optic arts desire resonators having increased bandwidths that are relatively cheap and quick to produce without sacrifices in any resonator quality, reliability or longevity.
In the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments, reference is made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof, and in which is shown by way of illustration, specific embodiments in which the inventions may be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, and it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and that process, electrical or mechanical changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. The term substrate used in this specification includes any base semiconductor structure such as silicon-on-sapphire (SOS) technology, silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology, thin film transistor (TFT) technology, doped and undoped semiconductors, epitaxial layers of a silicon supported by a base semiconductor structure, as well as other semiconductor structures well known to one skilled in the art. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present invention is defined only by the appended claims and their equivalents.
The following description and figures use a reference numeral convention where the first digit of the reference numeral corresponds to the figure and the following two digits correspond to like elements throughout the specification. For example, the lower cladding of a thermo optic device of the present invention has a reference number of 202, 302, 402, etc. corresponding to the lower cladding X02 in
With reference to
A first layer 202 or lower cladding is formed on the substrate. In one embodiment, the substrate is some form of silicon and the first layer is formed as a grown layer via oxidation of the substrate. In another embodiment, the first layer is formed by deposition techniques.
Some particular deposition techniques for the first layer, and all remaining deposited layers, include, but are not limited to, any variety of chemical vapor depositions (CVD), physical vapor depositions (PVD), epitaxy, evaporation, sputtering or other known or hereinafter developed techniques. Specific CVD techniques include low pressure (LP) ones, but could also be atmospheric pressure (AP), plasma enhanced (PE), high density plasma (HDP) or other.
In one particular embodiment, the first layer is a silicon oxide that is deposited via a LPCVD technique using a tetraethyl orthosilicate or TEOS source.
After depositing the first layer, a first mask 204 is provided to photo impact 206 the first layer 202 in a photomasking step so that a photo impacted region 208 is formed in the lower cladding.
In one embodiment, the photo impacting is accomplished with an ultraviolet light from a photolithography device well known to those skilled in the art. The photo impacting, however, should not be limited to such an embodiment and may alternatively include X-rays or other light sources.
The first mask 204 may be configured as a clear-field or dark-field mask, as those terms as well understood by skilled artisans, according to the desired design of the photo impacted region 208 in the lower cladding.
Thereafter, with reference to
It should be appreciated that while the depression 210 is depicted in a cross sectional view it also has a lengthwise dimension (into or away from the paper) and it may be formed completely across the surface of the lower cladding or may be formed in just a particular region thereof. For example, with reference to
In still another embodiment, the depression may take on a desired pattern or shape across the lower cladding or in just a particular region. For example, in
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that even further forms, shapes and dimensions of depressions are formable in the lower cladding and include, but are not limited to rectangles, circles, serpentine formations, tooth-shaped patterns, polygons, triangles, squares, or any other geometric shape(s) that could be fabricated with the first mask. It should be further appreciated that the particularly shown trenches, concavities, and angular indentations may be of various dimensions and take on any or all embodiments shown herein.
With reference to
In one particular embodiment of the invention, the photo impacted region 208 is dry etched with a photo resist pattern and CF4 or CF4CHF3 Argon based chemistry in a parallel plate reactor for 360 seconds under the conditions of about 50 militorr, 600 watts and 13.56 MHz.
With reference to
In one embodiment, the second layer is a silicon oxynitride deposited with a PECVD technique using a silane with nitrous oxide reaction in an argon or helium plasma for 180 seconds, under the conditions of 400° C., 450 watts and 13.56 MHz. In another embodiment, the second layer is a translucent material.
While the lower cladding, in one embodiment, was formed of a silicon oxide and the second layer was formed of silicon oxynitride, it should be appreciated that numerous other materials for these first and second layers exist. What dictates the selection of the materials is the index of refraction. This is because the second layer will be formed into the waveguide and resonator and light will be propagated therein via reflections of light that occur at the boundary where the two layers meet. So long as the second layer is a material having an index of refraction that is different, either higher or lower, than the index of refraction for the first layer (at whatever wavelength of light the thermo optic device is designed for) light signals can be propagated.
With reference to
As with the first photomasking step, the photo impacting is accomplished with an ultraviolet light from a photolithography device but may alternatively include X-rays or other light sources. The second mask be configured in such a way that the photo impacted region of the second layer takes on a desired form such as those previously shown. Some particular mask embodiments include, but are not limited to, clear-field or dark-field masks.
As shown in
Many things should now be apparent to those skilled in the art. For example, the resonator 222 has a portion thereof, having a depth “D,” formed in the depression between surface 221 of first layer 202 and depression bottom 223. It has another portion thereof formed between surface 221 and plane 225. Simultaneously, the waveguides 218, 220 have no portion thereof formed in the depression and all portions thereof formed on the surface 221 of the first layer and extending from the surface 221 to plane 225. As a result, the aspect ratio between the resonator and the waveguides has decreased (in comparison to the prior art,
In particular, the aspect ratio (a.r.) in area 231 has decreased where the input waveguide 218 and resonator 222 front one another along resonator surface 223 and input waveguide surface 219, wherein (a.r.) in area 231 is defined as the area of the input waveguide surface 219 to the area of the resonator surface 223 or (a.r.=area of input waveguide surface 219/area of resonator surface 223). (As will become apparent from the following discussion, the aspect ratio between adjacent resonators (
In area 233, the aspect ratio has similarly decreased where the output waveguide 220 and resonator 222 front one another along resonator surface 225 and output waveguide surface 221, wherein (a.r.) in area 233 is defined as the area of the output waveguide surface 221 to the area of the resonator surface 225 or (a.r.=area of output waveguide surface 221/area of resonator surface 225).
In one particular embodiment of the invention, it has been discovered that the aspect ratio decreased so significantly that the resonator bandwidth approximately doubled by increasing from about 16 nm to about 32 nm.
The depth “D” to which the resonator is formed in or fills the depression is dictated by at least two factors. The first is a practical limitation governed by the fill capability inherent in the material of the second layer. For example, if the second layer were deposited as a liquid (amorphous), and the depth of the depression was a relatively substantial percentage of the thickness of the lower cladding, it would likely fill to a greater depth than a non-liquid. Second, the depth is a function of the frequency gain the designed resonator is trying to achieve and varies greatly from application to application.
The height of the resonator between surface 221 and plane 225 is not required to be any particular height and is dictated according to the frequency characteristics demanded by the particular application in which the resonator is used. As a reference point, however, resonator and waveguide height is often in a range from about 1 to about 2 microns.
Similarly, the horizontal spacing between the resonators and the waveguides is not required to be any particular distance and is dictated according to the frequency characteristics demanded by the particular application in which the resonator is used. As a reference point, however, horizontal spacing between resonators and waveguides is often in a range from about 1 to about 2 microns.
It should also be appreciated that the upper surfaces of the input and output waveguides 218, 220 and resonator 222 are all substantially coplanar as defined by plane 225 (although only shown in one dimension). As a result, the manufacturing of a resonator having an increased bandwidth is completed after the etching process performed on the second layer and no additional processing steps need to occur.
To complete the thermo optic device, however, a third layer 224 or upper cladding is deposited on the waveguides 218, 220, the resonator 222 and portions 235 of the lower cladding not having a waveguide or resonator. The upper cladding is deposited to a thickness sufficient to prevent outside light from interfering with the light propagated in the waveguide during use. As a reference point, however, thickness for both the upper and lower claddings is often the same and in one embodiment is about 4 microns nominally.
In one embodiment, the third layer is a second silicon oxide layer deposited in the same manner as previously described for the first layer. In another embodiment, the third layer has an index of refraction that is substantially equal to the index of refraction of the first layer.
It will be appreciated that the third layer 224 has an upper surface 226 that can be used to stack multiple thermo optic devices by continuing the deposition, patterning and etching processes described herein. The surface 226 may alternatively contain a heater (not shown) for changing a thermo optical property of the device as light propagates in the waveguide during use.
With reference to
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that still other numbers of resonators could be formed in the depressions while forming waveguides on the surface of the lower cladding.
While the foregoing teaches resonators having increased bandwidth, in an alternate embodiment of the present invention, it may be desirable to decrease resonator bandwidth by increasing the previously described aspect ratio(s).
For example, with reference to
In still another embodiment, it may be desirable to increase some resonator bandwidths while decreasing others. With reference to
It will be appreciated that during use, the resonators of the present invention may be used with thermo optic devices in a variety of applications. For example, the thermo optic device may be an amplifier, modulator, gate, filter, time delay element, switch, multiplexer, or other.
With reference to
In either system, a light source 1143 will be provided as the source for propagating light signals along at least one fiber optic line 1147. Well known light sources include, but are not limited to, laser light sources. In the embodiment shown, the system 1141 includes a plurality of fiber optic lines 1147.
Coupleable to the fiber optic lines via a plurality of input fiber optic ports 1151 is a thermo optic package 1149. Contained within the thermo optic package is at least one thermo optic device 1153 having at least one resonator or waveguide formed in accordance with the present invention. In the embodiment shown, the thermo optic device 1153 is coupled to the input fiber optic port 1151 via an input connector 1155 while an output connector 1157 couples the thermo optic device to an output fiber optic port 1159. In turn, the output fiber optic port 1159 is coupled to another fiber optic line 1147 of system 1141.
During use, a system user merely needs to couple fiber optic lines 1147 to the input and output fiber optic ports of the package 1149 to readily achieve at least one resonator or waveguide having an increased or decreased bandwidth as necessary.
With reference to
In another embodiment, the single input connector of the thermo optic device 1253, having a resonator or waveguide formed in accordance with the present invention, may alternatively be replaced with two or more input connectors while the two output connectors may be replaced with one or more output connectors depending upon the type and desired use of the thermo optic device 1253.
The above structures and fabrication methods have been described, by way of example, and not by way of limitation, with respect to resonators for thermo optic devices.
In particular, the resonator of a thermo optic device is formed in the same process steps as a waveguide and is formed in a depression of a lower cladding while the waveguide is formed on a surface of the lower cladding. In this manner, since an upper surface of the resonator and the waveguide is substantially coplanar, the aspect ratio as between the waveguide and resonator in an area where the waveguide and resonator front or face one another decreases thereby increasing the bandwidth of the resonator. The depression is formed by photomasking and etching the lower cladding before forming the resonator and waveguide. Some depression embodiments include trenches, concavities and angular indentations.
In another embodiment, a plurality of resonators are taught that are formed in a plurality of depressions of the lower cladding while a plurality of waveguides are formed on the surface of the lower cladding.
In still another embodiment, waveguide(s) are formed in the depression(s) of the lower cladding while the resonator is formed on the surface. In this manner, the aspect ratio increases thereby decreasing bandwidth of the resonator.
Thermo optic devices formed with these resonators are also taught.
As a result, resonators of this invention can be formed quicker and cheaper without any corresponding sacrifice in quality, reliability or longevity.
The present invention has been particularly shown and described with respect to certain preferred embodiment(s). However, it will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that a wide variety of alternate embodiments, adaptations or variations of the preferred embodiment(s), and/or equivalent embodiments may be made without departing from the intended scope of the present invention as set forth in the appended claims. Accordingly, the present invention is not limited except as by the appended claims.
This application is a Continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/951,796, filed Dec. 6, 2007, which is a Divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/493,717, filed Jul. 26, 2006, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,323,353, which is a Continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 10/231,897, filed Aug. 29, 2002, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,120,336, all of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 11493717 | Jul 2006 | US |
Child | 11951796 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 11951796 | Dec 2007 | US |
Child | 13483542 | US | |
Parent | 10231897 | Aug 2002 | US |
Child | 11493717 | US |