Si-Based Lab-on-A-Chip Integrated Photonic Spectrometer

In this STTR Phase I program, Structured Materials Industries, Inc. (SMI) and Arizona State University (ASU) will develop a SiGeSn based light emitter device technology on Si, which will be a key ingredient for Si-based integrated photonics applications, such as in lab-on-a-chip integrated chemical and biological spectrometers for landers, astronaut health monitoring, front-end and back-end for remote sensing instruments including trace gas lidars in NASA missions. SiGeSn presents a great potential for the Si-based photonic spectrometers since it offers a direct band gap over a range of compositions as well as direct growth compatibility with Si. The narrow direct band gap offers the promise of III-V like photonic device performance in the ~1.5 to 5.0 micron range.The proposed on-chip biological and chemical spectrometer on silicon has the distinctive advantages of small foot print, potentially fully integrated on the same silicon platform to form the SI phonic circuits, including SiGeSn LED light source and detector, as well as light dispersion function, that will be made of a photonic crystal, rather than a diffraction grating as a means of wavelength separation. The full integration of SiGeSn emitters with photonic devices, all on Si, will constitute the long awaited dawn of the next generation in semiconductor electronics-photonics and spectrometers on one common platform.