Journal of Physical Chemistry & Biophysics
Open Access
ISSN: 2161-0398
+44 1478 350008
ISSN: 2161-0398
+44 1478 350008
Sandro Rao
Universit? degli Studi â??Mediterraneaâ? di Reggio Calabria, Italy
Posters-Accepted Abstracts: J Phys Chem Biophys
Silicon photonics is a new emerging and disruptive technology aimed at using cost-effective silicon-based materials for the generation, control and detection of modulated light signals for optical communications and many sensing applications. So far, most of the research has demonstrated a two dimensional (2D) approach to the photonic components, nevertheless, the possibilities to design and fabricate a three dimensional (3D) CMOS photonic integrated chip is of fundamental importance as it enables increased complexity and scalability of optical circuitry and the continuation of the Mooreâ??s law. In this context, hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) is a particularly promising platform for enabling the desired matching between electronics and on-chip photonics. Thin a-Si:H layers can be in fact deposited using the CMOS-compatible low-temperature plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition technique, with no impact at all on the microelectronic layers. Moreover, the flexibility of depositing a-Si:H on a wide range of substrates can be exploited for a readily available, truly CMOS-friendly, PIC technology for those applications where communication rates of a few Gbps are adequate. It is worth noting that the use of a-Si:H in microelectronics is in fact already an industrial standard. It is sufficient to think of the huge and established industry of TFT-based displays where yields and reliability are comparable to those of the crystal silicon industry. Recently, first experimental results have been reported on waveguide integrated, a-Si:H-based, electro-optic devices operating at the telecommunication wavelengths, demonstrating that this technology is a suitable platform for the low cost fabrication of PICs on standard electronic microchips.
Email: sandro.rao@unirc.it