SBIR Phase I: Enabling Ultra-Compact Photonic Integrated Circuits with Designer Disordered Dielectrics

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目在与物质结构有关的基本新物理见解与在新兴市场积极实现“光半导体”商业化之间的鸿沟中放置了一块垫脚石，其中包括用于高密度光学互连的光子集成电路(PIC)。以前的假设是周期性对形成光子带隙(PBG)是必不可少的，这是创造“光半导体”所必需的，但最近被证明是错误的。以抑制密度涨落(超均匀)为特征的新结构包括表现出各向同性光子带隙的无序结构。相对于基于光子晶体的“光半导体”，这放松了布局限制并降低了PBG PIC的制造公差。研究目标包括将超均匀无序光子带隙用于基于光子带隙的PIC调制器的设计。这项研究将在一种能够控制各向同性光的新型设计型介质中利用全新的对称和非对称共振光缺陷结构。预计的技术成果包括用于光子集成电路的更高性能的光调制器，提供单位芯片面积波长密度的改善，降低能源需求，并提高制造容忍度。该项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是应用新发现的固体物质结构来消除带宽瓶颈，否则带宽瓶颈可能会限制云计算商业模式的增长，并威胁到公众持续免费获得日益先进的网络服务。预计2015年价值33亿美元的光互连市场将包括快速增长的高密度光收发器系列，其价格适用于以400 Gb/S或更高速率运行的数据中心应用。进入市场将需要颠覆性的技术进步，而不仅仅是渐进的技术进步。基于新发现的超均匀无序结构(HUD)的光子集成电路的商业化打破了目前使用硅光子学微环谐振器(MRR)制造光子集成电路(PIC)的趋势，因为HUD使能的PBG谐振结构在芯片面积上比MRR小约100倍。与MRR相比，较小体积的PBG谐振结构已被证明能够实现更低的每比特能量调制。最后，与MRR相比，支持HUDS的PBG PIC对温度的敏感性预计会更低。支持HUD的PBG PIC的这些优势，加上HUD的制造容忍度、布局灵活性和各向同性的提高，有望为网络设备和数据中心市场提供更低成本、更紧凑和更节能的光收发器。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project positions a stepping stone in the chasm between fundamental new physics insights relating to the structure of matter and an aggressive approach to commercializing "Semiconductors of Light" in emerging markets which include photonic integrated circuits (PICs) for high density optical interconnects. Prior assumptions that periodicity was essential to forming the photonic band gaps (PBGs) necessary to create "Semiconductors of Light" have recently been proven false. New structures, characterized by suppressed density fluctuations (hyperuniformity), include disordered structures that exhibit photonic band gaps which are isotropic. This loosens layout constraints and reduces fabrication tolerances for PBG PICs relative to "Semiconductors of Light" based on photonic crystals. Research objectives include the use of hyperuniformly disordered PBGs in the design of PBG-based PIC modulators. This research will leverage entirely new classes of both symmetric and asymmetric resonant light defect structures in a new kind of designer dielectric capable of isotropic light control. Anticipated technical results include higher-performance optical modulators for photonic integrated circuits providing improvements in wavelength density per unity chip area, reduced energy requirements, and improved fabrication tolerance.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is to apply a newly-discovered structure of solid matter to the elimination of bandwidth bottlenecks that might otherwise constrain the growth of cloud computing business models and threaten continued free availability to the public of increasingly advanced network services. The $3.3B optical interconnect market projected for 2015 will include a rapidly-growing family of high-density optical transceivers priced for datacenter applications operating at rates of 400 Gb/s and beyond. Market entry will require a disruptive rather than just an incremental technological improvement. Commercialization of photonic integrated circuits based on newly-discovered hyperuniformly disordered structures (HUDS) disrupts the current trend toward photonic integrated circuits (PICs) made with silicon photonics microring resonators (MRRs) because HUDS-enabled PBG resonant structures are ~100x smaller in chip area than MRRs. The smaller volume of PBG resonant structures relative to MRRs has been shown to enable lower energy per bit modulation. Finally, HUDs-enabled PBG PICs are expected to be less sensitive to temperature than MRRs. These advantages of HUDS-enabled PBG PICs, along with the improved fabrication tolerance, layout flexibility, and isotropy of HUDS, promise to provide lower cost, more compact, and more energy-efficient optical transceivers for networking equipment and data center markets.