SIMOX STRUCTURES FOR OPTICAL WAVEGUIDES AND ELECTRO-OPTIC DEVICES IN SILICON

CRYSTALLINE SILICON IS A NEW MATERIAL FOR OPTICAL WAVEGUIDING IN THE 1.3 TO 1.6 MICRON WAVELENGTH RANGE. THIS PROPOSAL WILL ADVANCE THE STATE-OF-THE-ART OF SILICON GUIDED-WAVE OPTICS, ESPECIALLY SILICON OPTICAL INTERCONNECTS. WE SHALL INVESTIGATE A NOVEL, THREE-DIMENSIONAL, SILICON-ON-INSULATOR (SOI) GUIDED-WAVE STRUCTURE THAT WILL ALLOW OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS ON TWO STACKED LEVELS WITHIN A LARGE-AREA SILICON WAFER. TO DO THIS WE SHALL USE MULTIPLE IMPLANTS OF OXYGEN IONS BASED ON SPIRE'S UNIQUE EXPERIENCE IN PRODUCING MULTI-LEVEL SEPARATION BY IMPLANTATION OF OXYGEN (SIMOX) STRUCTURES. IN ADDITION, WE SHALL EXAMINE WAYS OF FABRICATING LOW-LOSS SOI WAVEGUIDES AND HIGH-SPEED ELECTRO-OPTIC (EO) DEVICES INTEGRATED IN SOI WAVEGUIDES. LOW-LOSS GUIDING AND PRACTICAL EO COMPONENTS ARE TWO KEY AREAS THAT NEED TO BE RESEARCHED TO ESTABLISH THAT SILICON IS A VIABLE AND VALUABLE OPTICAL MATERIAL. GOAL OF THE PHASE II WORK WILL BE TO EXPLOIT PHASE I RESULTS TO CONSTRUCT PRACTICAL, HIGH PERFORMANCE, GUIDED-WAVE ELECTRO-OPTIC COMPONENTS IN SOI. THE BEST-SUITED SIMOX STRUCTURES FROM PHASE I WILL BE SELECTED. SOME POSSIBLE APPROACHES FOR PHASE II ARE TO FABRICATE SCHOTTKY-BARRIER OR P-N JUNCTION ELECTRODES ON SOI CHANNEL WAVEGUIDES TO OBTAIN HIGH-PERFORMANCE OPTICAL PHASE MODULATORS FOR THE 1.3 MICRON WAVELENGTH.