Innovative Technology for III-V/Si Optoelectronic IntegratedCircuits

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9410905 Lo When communication and computing systems merge in the coming information age, schemes of interfacing photonics and electronics become increasingly important. One ideal scenario will be integrating photonics and electronics together to form optoelectronic integrated circuits (OEIC's). Such OEIC's will not only provide efficient O/E and E/O interfaces but also have applications in massively parallel interconnect and signal processing. Since transistors and optical devices (laser and detectors), the workhorses for electronics and photonics, are mostly made of silicon and III-V compound semi-conductors respectively, the most sensible OEIC's should combine III-V optoelectronics with Si electronics. If the technology for such III-V/Si OEIC's becomes available, exciting new areas such as the integration of optoelectronics with nanoelectronics and micromachining can be explored. The future impact of these new areas might be very significant. One fundamental problem for Si-based OEIC's is that high quality III-V compound epitaxy can not be formed reliably on Si substrates. Besides, the integration process of forming III-V/Si OEIC's has not been developed, hindered by the process incompatibilities between III-V and Si materials. To solve these technical bottlenecks, this research will focus on three subjects: (1) to develop viable technology to integrate III-V epitaxial layers on silicon substrates, (2) to develop processes to integrate III-V optical components with silicon electronic circuits, and (3) to demonstrate functional III-V/Si OEIC's. ***