Low half-wave voltage polymeric electro-optic modulator using CLD-1/PMMA for electrocardiogram (ECG) signal acquisition.

Electro-optic (EO) modulators are typically made of inorganic materials such as lithium niobate; the replacement of these modulators with organic EO materials is a promising alternative due to their lower half-wave voltage (Vπ), ease of handling, and relatively low cost. We propose the design and fabrication of a push-pull polymer electro-optic modulator with voltage-length parameters (VπL) of 1.28 V·cm. The device uses a Mach-Zehnder structure and is made of a second-order nonlinear optical host-guest polymer composed of a CLD-1 chromophore and PMMA polymer. The experimental results show that the loss is 1.7 dB, Vπ drops to 1.6 V, and the modulation depth is 0.637 dB at 1550 nm. The results of a preliminary study show that the device is capable of efficiently detecting electrocardiogram (ECG) signals with performance on par with that of commercial ECG devices.

Design and fabrication of SU-8 polymer arrayed waveguide gratings based on flexible PDMS substrates.

We investigated and fabricated 1×8 and 1×16 traditional/saddle arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) wavelength division multiplexing devices on flexible substrates. The core layer was made of the negative epoxy photoresist SU-8, and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) material was selected for the cladding based on the high refractive index difference. A chemical modification method of PDMS was proposed to enhance the film-forming characteristics of the SU-8 core layer on PDMS substrates. After fabricating and characterizing the optical properties of the AWGs, the dimensions of the proposed 1×8 and 1×16 AWGs were 0.9×0.8cm2 and 1.1×0.9cm2, respectively. Experimental results showed that the saddle-type 1×8 and 1×16 AWGs had good signal transmission characteristics, and the insertion losses were only 5.1 dB and 6.8 dB, respectively, which were lower than those of traditional-type AWGs with the same dimensions and number of waveguides.

Numerical Demonstration of 800 Gbps WDM Silicon Photonic Transmitter with Sub-Decibel Surface-Normal Optical Interfaces.

We propose and numerically demonstrate an 800 Gbps silicon photonic transmitter with sub-decibel surface-normal optical interfaces. The silicon photonic transmitter is composed of eight silicon Mach-Zehnder optical modulators and an interleaved AMMI WDM device. This WDM device comprises two 1 × 4 angled MMI and a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) optical interleaver with an apodized bidirectional grating which has about -0.5 dB coupling loss. Both the Mach-Zehnder electro-optical modulators and MZI optical interleaver regard the bidirectional grating coupler as vertical optical coupler and 3-dB power splitter/combiner. By importing the S-parameter matrices of all the components which have been carefully designed in simulation software, the circuit-level model of the optical transmitter can be built up. On this basis, the static and dynamic performance characterization were carried out numerically. For NRZ modulation, the optical transmitter exhibits the overall optical loss of 4.86-6.72 dB for eight wavelength channels. For PAM4 modulation, the optical loss is about 0.5 dB larger than that of NRZ modulation, which varies between 5.38-7.27 dB. From the eye diagram test results, the WDM silicon photonic transmitter can achieve single channel data transmission at 100 Gb/s NRZ data or 50 GBaud/s PAM4 symbol rate with acceptable bit error rate.

In Situ Regeneration of Silicon Microring Biosensors Coated with Parylene C.

Optical biosensors support disease diagnostic applications, offering high accuracy and sensitivity due to label-free detection and their optical resonance enhancement. However, optical biosensors based on noble metal nanoparticles and precise micro-electromechanical system technology are costly, which is an obstacle for their applications. Here, we proposed a biosensor reuse method with nanoscale parylene C film, taking the silicon-on-insulator microring resonator biosensor as an example. Parylene C can efficiently adsorb antibody by one-step modification without any surface treatment, which simplifies the antibody modification process of sensors. Parylene C (20 nm thick) was successfully coated on the surface of the microring to modify anti-carcinoembryonic antigen (anti-CEA) and specifically detect CEA. After sensing, parylene C was successfully removed without damaging the sensing surface for the sensor reusing. The experimental results demonstrate that the sensing response did not change significantly after the sensor was reused more than five times, which verifies the repeatability and reliability of the reusable method by using parylene C. This framework can potentially reduce the cost of biosensors and promote their further applications.

Bidirectional grating based interleaved angled MMI for high-uniformity wavelength division (de)multiplexing and surface-normal fiber packaging.

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a vertical fiber interfacing interleaved angled multimode interference (MMI) coupler for wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) applications. This four-channel WDM device comprises two 1×2 angled MMI couplers and a bidirectional grating-based Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) structure. In the MZI optical interleaver, the uniform bidirectional grating functions as both the perfectly vertical grating coupler and the 3 dB power splitter. Benefitting from the flat-top coupling spectrum of the grating coupler, a high-uniformity wavelength-division (de)multiplexing can be achieved with a simulated insertion loss of 3.15-3.36 dB (the nonuniformity of 0.22 dB). The angled MMIs (AMMIs) are designed and optimized using the eigenmode expansion method. For wavelength matching between the MZI and AMMIs, the circuit simulation model of the interleaved AMMI is built by importing the S-parameter matrices of all the optical components extracted from the physical level simulations. The device was fabricated using standard CMOS technology and all the features were patterned with the 193-nm deep-UV lithography. Experimental results obtained without thermal tuning are in good agreement with the simulation results. The device exhibits an insertion loss of 4.5-4.65 dB (nonuniformity of 0.15 dB), channel spacing of 10 nm, and cross talk of -(21.62-26)dB.

Silicon Waveguide Integrated with Germanium Photodetector for a Photonic-Integrated FBG Interrogator.

We report a vertically coupled germanium (Ge) waveguide detector integrated on silicon-on-insulator waveguides and an optimized device structure through the analysis of the optical field distribution and absorption efficiency of the device. The photodetector we designed is manufactured by IMEC, and the tests show that the device has good performance. This study theoretically and experimentally explains the structure of Ge PIN and the effect of the photodetector (PD) waveguide parameters on the performance of the device. Simulation and optimization of waveguide detectors with different structures are carried out. The device's structure, quantum efficiency, spectral response, response current, changes with incident light strength, and dark current of PIN-type Ge waveguide detector are calculated. The test results show that approximately 90% of the light is absorbed by a Ge waveguide with 20 µm Ge length and 500 nm Ge thickness. The quantum efficiency of the PD can reach 90.63%. Under the reverse bias of 1 V, 2 V and 3 V, the detector's average responsiveness in C-band reached 1.02 A/W, 1.09 A/W and 1.16 A/W and the response time is 200 ns. The dark current is only 3.7 nA at the reverse bias voltage of -1 V. The proposed silicon-based Ge PIN PD is beneficial to the integration of the detector array for photonic integrated arrayed waveguide grating (AWG)-based fiber Bragg grating (FBG) interrogators.

Broadband High-Efficiency Grating Couplers for Perfectly Vertical Fiber-to-Chip Coupling Enhanced by Fabry-Perot-like Cavity.

We propose a broadband high-efficiency grating coupler for perfectly vertical fiber-to-chip coupling. The up-reflection is reduced, hence enhanced coupling efficiency is achieved with the help of a Fabry-Perot-like cavity composed of a silicon nitride reflector and the grating itself. With the theory of the Fabry-Perot cavity, the dimensional parameters of the coupler are investigated. With the optimized parameters, up-reflection in the C-band is reduced from 10.6% to 5%, resulting in an enhanced coupling efficiency of 80.3%, with a 1-dB bandwidth of 58 nm, which covers the entire C-band. The minimum feature size of the proposed structure is over 219 nm, which makes our design easy to fabricate through 248 nm deep-UV lithography, and lowers the fabrication cost. The proposed design has potential in efficient and fabrication-tolerant interfacing applications, between off-chip light sources and integrated chips that can be mass-produced.

Efficiency Enhanced Grating Coupler for Perfectly Vertical Fiber-to-Chip Coupling.

In this work, a bidirectional grating coupler for perfectly vertical coupling is proposed. The coupling efficiency is enhanced using a silicon nitride (Si3N4) layer above a uniform grating. In the presence of Si3N4 layer, the back-reflected optical power into the fiber is diminished and coupling into the waveguide is increased. Genetic algorithm (GA) is used to optimize the grating and Si3N4 layer simultaneously. The optimal design obtained from GA shows that the average in-plane coupling efficiency is enhanced from about 57.5% (-2.5 dB) to 68.5% (-1.65 dB), meanwhile the average back-reflection in the C band is reduced from 17.6% (-7.5 dB) to 7.4% (-11.3 dB). With the help of a backside metal mirror, the average coupling efficiency and peak coupling efficiency are further increased to 87% (-0.6 dB) and 89.4% (-0.49 dB). The minimum feature size of the designed device is 266 nm, which makes our design easy to fabricate through 193 nm deep-UV lithography and lowers the fabrication cost. In addition, the coupler proposed here shows a wide-band character with a 1-dB bandwidth of 64 nm and 3-dB bandwidth of 96 nm. Such a grating coupler design can provide an efficient and cost-effective solution for vertical fiber-to-chip optical coupling of a Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) application.

High-efficiency apodized bidirectional grating coupler for perfectly vertical coupling.

We propose and experimentally demonstrate an apodized bidirectional grating coupler for high-efficiency, perfectly vertical coupling. Through grating apodization, the coupling efficiency (CE) can be notably improved, and the parasitic reflections can be minimized. For ease of fabrication, subwavelength gratings are introduced, which are also beneficial for the coupling performance. Simulation shows a record CE of 72%. We found that the coupler is quite robust to the variation of incidence mode field diameter and fiber misalignment. A CE of -1.8 dB is experimentally measured with a 1-dB bandwidth of 37 nm.

100 Gb/s Silicon Photonic WDM Transmitter with Misalignment-Tolerant Surface-Normal Optical Interfaces.

A 4 × 25 Gb/s ultrawide misalignment tolerance wavelength-division-multiplex (WDM) transmitter based on novel bidirectional vertical grating coupler has been demonstrated on complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform. Simulations indicate the bidirectional grating coupler (BGC) is widely misalignment tolerant, with an excess coupling loss of only 0.55 dB within ±3 µm fiber misalignment range. Measurement shows the excess coupling loss of the BGC is only 0.7 dB within a ±2 µm fiber misalignment range. The bidirectional grating structure not only functions as an optical coupler, but also acts as a beam splitter. By using the bidirectional grating coupler, the silicon optical modulator shows low insertion loss and large misalignment tolerance. The eye diagrams of the modulator at 25 Gb/s don't show any obvious deterioration within the waveguide-direction fiber misalignment ranger of ±2 µm, and still open clearly when the misalignment offset is as large as ±4 µm.

A graphene based frequency quadrupler.

Benefit from exceptional electrical transport properties, graphene receives worldwide attentions, especially in the domain of high frequency electronics. Due to absence of effective bandgap causing off-state the device, graphene material is extraordinarily suitable for analog circuits rather than digital applications. With this unique ambipolar behavior, graphene can be exploited and utilized to achieve high performance for frequency multipliers. Here, dual-gated graphene field-effect transistors have been firstly used to achieve frequency quadrupling. Two Dirac points in the transfer curves of the designed GFETs can be observed by tuning top-gate voltages, which is essential to generate the fourth harmonic. By applying 200 kHz sinusoid input, arround 50% of the output signal radio frequency power is concentrated at the desired frequency of 800 kHz. Additionally, in suitable operation areas, our devices can work as high performance frequency doublers and frequency triplers. Considered both simple device structure and potential superhigh carrier mobility of graphene material, graphene-based frequency quadruplers may have lots of superiorities in regards to ultrahigh frequency electronic applications in near future. Moreover, versatility of carbon material system is far-reaching for realization of complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor compatible electrically active devices.

Frequency conversion with nonlinear graphene photodetectors.

Frequency conversion with nonlinear electronic components, a common approach for signal processing required in various communication applications, has found its operation bandwidth bottleneck due to the limited carrier mobility of the traditional materials. Meanwhile, fiber-optics communications are playing a significant role in communication services due to their excellent signal transmission properties. However, the transmitted optical signals had to be converted to electrical signals with photodetectors before frequency conversion was performed through conventional electronic devices, which make this conversion system very complex and costly. Hence, to develop a compact device that can achieve the photodetection and frequency conversion functions simultaneously is critical and significative. Here, we have proposed a novel concept for frequency conversion and demonstrated a nonlinear graphene photodetector based frequency converter that performs frequency conversion from optical signals directly. With this new concept, a frequency doubling signal at 4 GHz was obtained from a 2 GHz intensity-modulated optical signal. Moreover, using a 10 MHz intensity-modulated optical signal and another 3 GHz intensity-modulated optical signal, we show the frequency up-conversion to 3 ± 0.01 GHz. In particular, the frequency down-conversion to 100 MHz was achieved successfully by using a 2 GHz intensity-modulated optical signal and another 2.1 GHz intensity-modulated optical signal. Considering the broadband optical absorption, strong saturable absorption, high carrier mobility, and short photogenerated carrier lifetime of the graphene material, graphene photodetectors have the potential to achieve the frequency conversion of millimeter-wave band, which will open promising prospects in the domain of microwave photonics for next-gen communication systems.

Heterogeneous integration of a III-V VCSEL light source for optical fiber sensing.

We propose a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor interrogation system utilizing a III-V vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) as the on-chip light source. Binary blazed grating (BBG) for coupling between III-V VCSEL and silicon-on-insulator (SOI) waveguides is demonstrated for interrogation of the FBG sensor. The footprint size of the BBG is only 5.62 µm×5.3 µm, and each BBG coupler period has two subperiods. The diameter of the VCSEL's emitting window is 5 µm, which is slightly smaller than that of the BBG coupler, to be well-matched with the proposed structure. Results show that the coupling efficiency from vertical cavities of the III-V VCSEL to the in-plane waveguides reached as high as 32.6% when coupling the 1550.65 nm light. The heterogeneous integration of the III-V VCSEL and SOI waveguides by BBG plays a fundamental role in inducing a great breakthrough to the miniaturization of an on-chip light source for optical fiber sensing.

Bidirectional grating coupler based optical modulator for low-loss integration and low-cost fiber packaging.

We proposed and demonstrated a novel optical modulator based on a bidirectional grating coupler designed for perfectly vertical fiber coupling. The grating functions as the fiber coupler and 3-dB splitter. To observe the interference, an arm difference of 30µm is introduced. As a result of the high coupling efficiency and near perfect split ratio of the grating coupler, this device exhibits a low on-chip insertion loss of 5.4dB (coupling loss included) and high on-off extinction ratio more than 20dB. The modulation efficiency is estimated to be within 3-3.84V•cm. In order to investigate the fiber misalignment tolerance of this modulator, misalignment influence of the static characteristics is analyzed. 10Gb/s Data transmission experiments of this device are performed with different fiber launch positions. The energy efficiency is estimated to be 8.1pJ/bit.