Dual slot-mode NOEM phase shifter

Photonic system component counts are increasing rapidly, particularly in CMOS-compatible silicon photonics processes. Large numbers of cascaded active photonic devices are difficult to implement when accounting for constraints on area, power dissipation, and response time. Plasma dispersion and the thermo-optic effect, both available in CMOS-compatible silicon processes, address a subset of these criteria. With the addition of a few back-end-of-line etch processing steps, silicon photonics platforms can support nano-opto-electro-mechanical (NOEM) phase shifters. Realizing NOEM phase shifters that operate at CMOS-compatible voltages (<= 1.2 V) and with low insertion loss remains a challenge. Here, we introduce a novel NOEM phase shifter fabricated alongside 90 nanometer transistors that imparts 5.63 radians phase shift at 1.08 volts bias over an actuation length of 25 mu m with an insertion loss of less than 0.04 dB and 3 dB bandwidth of 0.26 MHz. (C) 2021 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement

Automated summary

The number of photonic system components is increasing rapidly, especially in CMOS-compatible silicon photonics processes. Despite the challenges of implementing large numbers of cascaded active photonic devices, plasma dispersion and the thermo-optic effect in CMOS-compatible silicon processes can address some criteria. With additional back-end-of-line etch processing steps, silicon photonics platforms can support nano-opto-electro-mechanical (NOEM) phase shifters, but achieving NOEM phase shifters that operate at CMOS-compatible voltages and with low insertion loss remains a challenge.