PIC: Hybrid Integration of Electro-Optic and Semiconductor Photonic Devices and Circuits with the AIM Photonics Institute

考虑到当今的电子芯片包含数百亿个设备，因此代表着极其复杂的系统，由于不断发展和扩大的电子制造基础设施通过规模经济提供了巨大的杠杆作用，因此它们在经济上变得可行。 相比之下，光子行业缺乏合适的基础设施来提供相同的影响力。因此，美国制造集成光子学研究所 (AIM Photonics) 是一个新的公私合作伙伴关系，旨在应对这一挑战。 虽然 AIM Photonics 的主要重点是利用硅 (Si) CMOS 制造基础设施来制造光子器件，但铌酸锂 (LiNbO3) 等其他材料系统可能更适合某些应用。 因此，这项工作的重点是与 AIM 光子研究所密切合作，开发新的异构制造工艺，使 LiNbO3 与 Si CMOS 直接集成，从而实现先进且经济可行的光子器件和芯片级系统。技术：该项目将开发硅上薄膜铌酸锂 (LiNbO3) 的混合集成和封装工艺，以在氮化硅中使用低损耗芯片级布线来实现高性能射频光子器件，例如调制器(Si3N4) 作为初始生产水平能力。这将通过利用成熟的硅电子处理、集成和封装技术并通过 AIM 光子学研究所将其扩展到硅基光子集成电路来实现。关键的实现能力将是将薄膜 LiNbO3 直接晶圆键合到铸造规模的硅晶圆上，以实现先进的异构射频光子电路，这些电路可在当前的工业铸造厂中制造，同时保持 3 西格玛的良率。目标设计目标包括：（1）用于数据网络的超高频调制器（100 GHz），（2）用于高端数据中心的高效、无阻塞芯片级路由器，以及（3）与传统和下一代无线通信兼容的高功率相控阵天线光子馈电网络。因此，成功完成拟议项目后，不仅将为开发可制造的异构集成工艺做出重大贡献，而且还将为解决跨越商业市场许多部门并触及社会几乎各个方面的紧迫应用做出重大贡献。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Considering that today's electronic chips contain tens of billions of devices, and, hence, represent extremely complicated systems, they are rendered economically feasible due to the ever developing and expanding electronics manufacturing infrastructure that provides enormous leverage via economy-of-scale. In comparison, the photonics industry lacks suitable infrastructure to provide the same leverage. As a result, the American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics (AIM Photonics) is a new public-private partnership to address this challenge. While the main focus of AIM Photonics is to leverage the silicon (Si) CMOS manufacturing infrastructure to make photonic devices, other material systems, such as Lithium Niobate (LiNbO3) may be better suited for some applications. Therefore, the focus of this effort is to work closely with the AIM Photonics Institute to develop new heterogeneous manufacturing processes that enable the direct integration of LiNbO3 with Si CMOS for advanced and economically feasible photonic devices and chip-scale systems.Technical:This project will develop a hybrid integration and packaging process for thin-film lithium niobate (LiNbO3) on silicon, to realize high performance RF-photonic devices, e.g., modulators, using low-loss chip-scale routing in silicon nitride (Si3N4) as an initial production level capability. This will be accomplished by leveraging the maturity of established silicon-electronic processing, integration, and packaging technologies and extend them to silicon-based photonic integrated circuits, through the AIM Photonics Institute. The key enabling capability will be to wafer-bond thin-film LiNbO3 directly to foundry scale silicon wafers to realize advanced heterogeneous RF-photonic circuits that are manufacturable within current industrial foundries while maintaining 3 sigma yields. The targeted design goals include: (1) ultra-high frequency modulators ( 100 GHz) for data networks, (2) highly efficient, non-blocking chip-scale routers for high-end data centers, and (3) high-power phased array antenna photonic feed networks compatible with legacy and future generation wireless communications. Thus, upon successful completion of the proposed project, significant contributions will be made to not only develop manufacturable heterogeneous integration processes but also to address pressing applications that span many sectors of the commercial market and touch nearly every aspect of society.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.