Scalable manufacturing of miniature opto-electronic devices and assemblies

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Silicon photonics (SiPh) is a new field of technological innovation targeting the tight integration of the energy-efficient optical transport of information with the computational power of silicon devices. Such a paradigm of an optical communication layer that is intimately interconnected to microelectronic chips would increase bandwidth and data communication speeds, as well as significantly lower the power consumption of current computers. The general consensus in the industry is that a major technical hurdle to significant market penetration of SiPh technologies is packaging and assembly process costs and limitations. The research project proposed for this CRD grant with IBM Canada will specifically address critical packaging aspects that are important for the successful implementation of SiPh products. The main goal of this project is to significantly improve the manufacturing processes used in the packaging of advanced SiPh devices, to deliver high-throughput, cost-effective assembly technologies. This goal will be achieved by a combination of more fundamental studies (material characterization, numerical modeling) and manufacturing technology research (fiber alignment and bonding, advanced process characterization, efficient microcomponent attachment, etc.).