PFI-TT: Developing Fiber to Chip Fusion for Advanced Photonic Packaging

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation – Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project is to enable the improve the performance of communications within data centers. Data traffic in data centers has tripled since 2016 and will continue to grow. Data centers are central to our interconnected way of life and have become critical as remote meetings and online interactions become commonplace. The proposed technology is a device capable of managing these higher volumes of activity.The proposed project will significantly reduce the cost of attaching arrays of fibers and specialty fibers to silicon photonic transceiver devices. Silicon photonic devices offer unparalleled performance and low cost by leveraging the CMOS electronics manufacturing infrastructure; however, up to 80% of the cost of a photonic device is in the packaging, and the main cost driver is permanently attaching optical fibers to the silicon photonic chip. The proposed project will develop the novel technology developed to permanently attach a fiber to a photonic chip using fusion splicing to address the needs of optical transceivers for datacenters. The proposed project will develop the process of fusing (i) arrays of up to twelve fibers, (ii) polarization maintaining fibers, and (iii) high numerical aperture fibers to enable next generation, high bandwidth optical transceivers.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.