Low-loss polysilicon waveguides fabricated in an emulated high-volume electronics process

We measure end-of-line polysilicon waveguide propagation losses of similar to 6-15 dB/cm across the telecommunication O-, E-, S-, C-and L-bands in a process representative of high-volume product integration. The lowest loss of 6.2 dB/cm is measured at 1550 nm in a polysilicon waveguide with a 120 nm x 350 nm core geometry. The reported waveguide characteristics are measured after the thermal cycling of the full CMOS electronics process that results in a 32% increase in the extracted material loss relative to the as-crystallized waveguide samples. The measured loss spectra are fit to an absorption model using defect state parameters to identify the dominant loss mechanism in the end-of-line and as-crystallized polysilicon waveguides. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America