Silicon photonics integrated circuit design

硅光子学是光学中的一个新兴领域，其中CMOS电子代工厂用于制造光学芯片，称为光子集成电路（PICs）。该计划的重点是解决与硅光子学相关的一些主要工程问题，以实现该技术的长期成功。虽然申请人参与了硅光子学的几个具体研究和开发项目，但该计划旨在确定各种学科（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。*********本项目的主要研究课题，旨在解决许多现有的项目挑战，以及预期的未来需求：*********1)光学电路的设计方法-电子工业在过去30多年中开发了精心设计的工具。设计自动化对于构建包含数千到数十亿晶体管的电路至关重要。同样，硅光子学技术正在迅速发展，现在可以在光子集成电路（PIC）中集成数十到数千个光学元件。复杂的PIC设计需要改进的设计流程。*********2)组件开发和光学电路建模-构建光子电路需要许多组件，我们专注于构建一个库，包括光学接口，高速调制器，探测器，光学滤波器和用于纳米光机械开关和高效热调谐器的悬浮光波导。需要对这些元件进行设计和优化、表征，并为这些元件开发电路模型。在许多情况下，已经有性能优异的元件可用（SiEPIC库），但关键的挑战是开发紧凑的光子元件模型用于电路建模。*********3)制造问题-硅光子学的主要挑战之一是极其微小的光学特性导致对制造变化的高灵敏度。量化可制造性变化是第一步；接下来，这些变化需要包括在电路设计方法；最后，需要开发对这些变化免疫的电路的方法。*********4)封装——硅光子学的最后一个挑战，除非解决，否则将导致该技术的灾难性消亡。不仅要实现低成本的解决方案，还需要在设计方法中考虑封装，以实现大规模应用，如一次性生物传感器和计算机内的光通信。

***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.