Journal of Physical Chemistry & Biophysics
Open Access
ISSN: 2161-0398
ISSN: 2161-0398
Sandro Rao
Universit�? degli Studi ��?Mediterranea� 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 Moore��?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