Next generation silicon photonic integrated circuits

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Future growth in the performance of computing and communication systems is hindered by the electronic technology upon which the vast majority of its hardware is realised. Electronic technology is being pushed ever closer to its physical limitations and as performance is pushed further, power consumption is also becoming increasingly problematic. Replacing electronic functionality with photonics can offer many advantages, however the cost of photonic technology is barrier to its uptake. Silicon photonics technology is widely seen as the solution, owing to its CMOS compatibility that offers a route to low cost manufacturing. The performance, flexibility and how densely it can integrated into such systems in its current form is however not sufficient. This project will pioneer a new implementations of the silicon photonic Mach-Zehnder interferometers that have the potential to significantly improve the capability of silicon photonic integrated circuits and revolutionise future compute systems. The project work will first involve the development of device designs based upon simulations performed using a combination of commercial and in-house developed modelling software. Fabrication of the devices will then be carried out using the world-class academic cleanroom complex in Southampton. Finally, device characterisation will performed in our state of the art silicon photonics laboratories.