Silicon photonics integrated circuit design

*硅光子学是光学领域的一个新兴领域，在这一领域中，可以使用CMOS电子铸造厂来制造光学芯片，即所谓的光子集成电路(PIC)。该计划专注于解决与硅光子学相关的一些主要工程问题，目的是使这项技术获得长期成功。虽然申请者参与了几个特定的硅光子学研究和开发项目，但该项目寻求确定各种学科(计算机通信、光通信、无线光子系统、传感器)的共同需求，并开发适合这些应用的解决方案。*该计划的主要研究课题旨在解决许多现有的项目挑战，预计未来的要求是：*1)光学电路的设计方法-电子行业在过去30多年里开发了复杂的设计工具。设计自动化对于构建包含数千到数十亿个晶体管的电路至关重要。同样，硅光子学技术正在迅速发展，因此现在可以在光子集成电路(PIC)中集成数万到数千个光学组件。复杂的PIC设计需要改进的设计流程。*2)元件开发和光学电路建模--需要许多元件来构建光子电路，我们正专注于构建一个库，其中包括光接口、高速调制器、探测器、滤光器以及用于纳米光机械开关和高效热调谐器的悬浮光波导。这些组件需要设计和优化、表征，并且需要开发这些组件的电路模型。在许多情况下，已经有性能优异的元件可用(SiEPIC库)，但关键挑战是开发用于电路建模的紧凑型光子元件模型。*3)制造问题-硅光子学的主要挑战之一是极小的光学特征导致对制造变化高度敏感。量化可制造性变化是第一步；其次，需要将这些变化包括在电路设计方法中；最后，需要开发制造不受这些变化影响的电路的方法。*4)封装--这是硅光子学的最后一项挑战，如果不加以解决，将导致该技术的灾难性灭亡。不仅必须实现低成本的解决方案，而且需要在设计方法中考虑封装，以使计算机中的一次性生物传感器和光通信等大容量应用成为可能。

***Silicon photonics is an emerging field in optics, whereby CMOS electronics foundries are used to manufacture optical chips, known as photonic integrated circuits (PICs). This program focuses on solving some of the major engineering problems associated with silicon photonics, with the aim of enabling the long-term success of this technology. While the applicant is involved in several specific research and development projects in silicon photonics, this program seeks to identify the common needs for a variety of disciplines (computer communications, optical telecommunications, wireless-photonic systems, sensors) and develop solutions suitable for these applications. *********The major research topics to be pursued in this program, which aim to address many of the existing project challenges, and the anticipated future requirements are: *********1) design methodologies for optical circuits - the electronics industry has developed elaborate design tools over the past 30+ years. Design automation is critical to build circuits containing thousands to billions of transistors. Similarly, silicon photonics technology is rapidly advancing whereby it is now possible to integrated tens to thousands of optical components in a photonic integrated circuit (PIC). An improved design flow is required for sophisticated PIC design. *********2) Components development and optical circuit modelling - there are many components required to build photonic circuits, and we are focusing on building a Library including optical interfaces, high-speed modulators, detectors, optical filters, and suspended optical waveguides for nano-opto mechanical switches and high efficiency thermal tuners. These components need to be designed and optimized, characterized, and circuit models for these components need to be developed. In many cases, there are already excellent performance components available (SiEPIC Library), but the key challenge is to develop compact photonic component models for circuit modelling. *********3) manufacturing issues - one of the major challenges in silicon photonics is that the extremely small optical features lead to a high sensitivity to fabrication variations. Quantifying the manufacturability variations is the first step; next these variations need to be included in the circuit design methodology; finally, methods to build circuits immune to these variations need to be developed. *********4) packaging - a final challenge of silicon photonics, which unless solved will lead to the catastrophic demise of the technology. Not only must low-cost solutions be realized, but packaging needs to be taken into account in the design methodology, to enable the large volume applications such as disposable biosensors and optical communications within computers.