Towards PDK Availability for Silicon Organic Hybrid Modulators on AIM Photonics' 300 mm Silicon Photonics Platform

Within the Department of Air Force (DAF), the greater Department of Defense (DoD), and throughout the semiconductor industry as a whole, there is a growing understanding of the need for heterogeneous integration of non-silicon materials to extend the capabilities of silicon photonics while continuing to leverage the considerable advantages associated with the platform, including utilization of existing infrastructure and ease of integration with electronics. While a number of different hybrid integration technologies utilizing different materials are being considered to address those limitations, silicon organic hybrid (SOH) EO modulators provide a silicon-adjacent technology that offers superior modulation efficiency, yielding an ideal combination of large bandwidth, low power, and small footprint. To this end, NLM Photonics is commercializing hybrid organic electro-optic (OEO) technology for integrated photonics, based around a combination of high-performance materials, process technologies for improving performance and stability, and device designs. Hybrid devices utilizing NLM’s OEO materials and associated process technologies can deliver 10-100x the modulation efficiency of competing integrated modulation solutions, enabling high bandwidth, low power use, and compact devices on integrated photonics platforms. Optical networking powered by hybrid photonics incorporating NLM’s technology could reduce data center and weapon system power consumption, improve communication bandwidth across length scales, and facilitate deployment of mmWave technologies for 6G wireless and beyond. Differentiating factors between NLM technology and existing EO conversion solutions include reduced operating voltage and efficient scaling to bandwidths of 100+ GHz. SOH modulator technology has been demonstrated operating at voltages as low as 0.2V. The voltage and capacitance reduction translates into a 1,000x improvement in power consumption. To transition this technology to the DAF and greater DoD, NLM Photonics has partnered with the American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics (AIM Photonics), one of the nine DoD Manufacturing Innovation Institutes. AIM Photonics was founded through an Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) funding opportunity announcement and thus is a well-established collaborator with the DAF for photonic integrated circuit (PIC) development. The ultimate objective of this effort is to enable a beta or “bite-size” custom (BSC) offering within AIM Photonics’ services, where designers can choose to implement the process module to incorporate SOH modulators into their designs for an additional cost. Beta/BSC offerings will expand access to the technology to other US government and outside interested parties, helping further develop the technology, and Phase III transition by the DAF or another agency will bring a full Process Design Kit (PDK) to deployment.