Project description
Advanced material bonding to revolutionise photonic integration
Photonic integration technology combines various components such as lasers, modulators and detectors on a single chip. The EU-funded PICTURE project aims to develop advanced photonic integration technology by bonding multiple semiconductor dies made from III-V compound materials to silicon-on-insulator wafers. This heterogeneous integration platform will enable higher-performance lasers, photodetectors, MOSCAP III-V/Si modulators and distributed feedback lasers with tuneable wavelength. The entire process will be executed on a 200-mm R&D CMOS line, resulting in higher yield, smaller footprint, and lower-cost photonic integrated circuits (PICs). Furthermore, PICTURE will develop quantum-dot lasers by directly growing them on bonded templates, aiming to enhance the performance of future high-density PICs.
Objective
The objective of PICTURE project is to develop a photonic integration technology by bonding multi-III-V-dies of different epitaxial stacks to SOI wafers with a thinner and uniform dielectric bonding layer. This heterogeneous integration platform will enable higher performance lasers and photo-detectors using the optimized III-V dies. In addition, the thinner bonding layer will lead to record performance MOSCAP III-V/Si modulators, and to a new generation of wavelength tunable distributed feedback lasers. Moreover the full process including SOI process, bonding, III-V and back-end process will be made on a 200mm R&D CMOS line, leading to higher yield, smaller footprint and lower cost PICs. Two types of PICs with a total capacity of 400Gb/s will be developed, packaged and validated in system configuration.
In parallel, PICTURE project will develop direct growth of high performance quantum-dot lasers and selective area growth on bonded templates for high density future generation of PICs.
The project is coordinated by III-V Lab, and includes University of Southampton, CEA, University College London, Imec, Tyndall, Argotech and Nokia Bell Labs. The consortium is highly complementary, covering all skills required to achieve the project objectives: growth of semiconductor materials, silicon process and III-V process, design and characterization of PICs, prototyping and assessment of PICs in high bit rate digital communication systems:
Apart from the adequacy of the consortium to achieve collectively the project objectives, the consortium partners have the potential to set up a comprehensive supply chain for the future exploitation of the project results, either by exploiting the results “in house” or by setting up suitable partnerships.
Fields of science
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensorsoptical sensors
- engineering and technologynanotechnologynano-materialstwo-dimensional nanostructures
- natural sciencesphysical scienceselectromagnetism and electronicssemiconductivity
- natural scienceschemical sciencesinorganic chemistrymetalloids
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesopticslaser physics
Keywords
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Funding Scheme
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinator
91767 Palaiseau Cedex
France