SBIR Phase I: Development of a Chip Technology for Cheaper and Easier Photonic Device Manufacturing

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是电信，数据通信，传感器等行业的制造技术的进步。和防守大多数互联网依赖于数据中心来处理数据，而这种处理是通过一种称为光收发器的设备来完成的。这些收发器容纳了一根光纤，它像一根头发丝一样细，连接到一个芯片设备上，用于向/从数据中心传输信息。光纤非常小，因此很难将光纤精确连接到芯片上，通常会导致性能损失。美国有2，700个数据中心，每个数据中心有100，000个收发器，因此，良好的光纤连接对于降低功耗和提高性能至关重要。技术公司也在寻找具有多根光纤的芯片，这使得对更好的光纤放置的需求变得更加迫切。在这个项目中，该公司专注于一项新技术，使芯片上的纤维放置更快，更准确，更便宜。这项新技术使用了一种特殊的组件，可以精确地放置纤维，同时将设备性能提高4倍。这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目解决了光收发器公司的主要痛点：将光纤封装到硅光子芯片的成本和时间。该产品由一台熔接机和一种新型的二氧化硅模式转换器组成。模式转换器将来自激光器的热量局部化，从而实现聚变，同时降低损耗水平。该技术封装硅光子器件而不影响性能。它将封装速度从10分钟显著提高到2分钟，将电源效率提高了4倍，并节省了50%的成本。该公司已经证明，在专用芯片上的耦合损耗低于3 dB的行业标准。研究目标包括将耦合损耗提高到1 dB左右，演示与代工芯片的拼接，以及提高熔接强度以提高可靠性。这些目标的完成将导致适用于代工芯片的极低损耗光子封装，从而增加该技术的商业化潜力。这项技术将使客户能够以高效率、低成本和高容量的方式包装单纤或多纤设备，最终提高许多行业的生产能力。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is the advancement of manufacturing technologies for industries such as telecommunications, data communications, sensors. and defense. Most of the internet relies on data centers to process data, and this processing is accomplished via a device called an optical transceiver. These transceivers house an optical fiber, which is as thin as a single strand of human hair, attached to a chip device to transfer information to/from the data centers. The optical fiber is so small that it is very difficult to precisely connect the fiber to the chip, often resulting in performance losses. With 100,000 transceivers per data center and 2,700 data centers in the United States, it is important to have good fiber connection for reduced power consumption and increased performance. Technology companies are also looking for chips with multiple fibers, making the need for better fiber placement even greater. In this project, the company focuses a new technology that makes fiber placement on a chip faster, more accurate, and cheaper. This new technology uses a special component that enables fiber placement with precision while improving the device performance 4 times. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project addresses major pain points for optical transceiver companies: cost and time to package an optical fiber to a silicon photonic chip. The proposed product consists of a fusion splicing machine and a novel silicon dioxide mode converter. The mode converter localizes heat from the laser, enabling fusion while simultaneously decreasing the loss level. This technology packages silicon photonic devices without compromising performance. It significantly improves packaging speed from 10 minutes to 2 minutes, increases power efficiency by 4X, and provides a 50% savings. The company has demonstrated coupling losses lower than the industry standard of 3 dB on specialty chips. The research objectives involve improving coupling losses to around 1 dB, demonstrating splicing with foundry chips, and improving the strength of the fusion splice for improved reliability. The completion of these objectives will result in extremely low loss photonic packaging applicable for use with foundry chips, increasing the commercialization potential of the technology. This technology will enable customers to package single or multi-fiber devices with high efficiency, low cost, and at high volumes, ultimately increasing production capacity across many industries.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.