This thesis presents an introduction to the design and simulation of a novel class of integrated photonic phased array switch elements. The main objective is to use nano-electromechanical (NEMS) based phase shifters of cascaded under-etched slot nanowires that are compact in size and require a small amount of power to operate them. The structure of the switch elements is organized such that it brings the phase shifting elements to the exterior sides of the photonic circuits. The transition slot couplers, used to interconnect the phase shifters, are designed to enable biasing one of the silicon beams of each phase shifter from an electrode located at the side of the phase shifter. The other silicon beam of each phase shifter is biased through the rest of the silicon structure of the switch element, which is taken as a ground. Phased array switch elements ranging from 2×2 up to 8×8 multiple-inputs/multiple-outputs (MIMO) are conveniently designed within reasonable footprints native to the current fabrication technologies. Chapter one presents the general layout of the various designs of the switch elements and demonstrates their novel features. This demonstration will show how waveguide disturbances in the interconnecting network from conventional switch elements can be avoided by adopting an innovative design. Some possible applications for the designed switch elements of different sizes and topologies are indicated throughout the chapter. Chapter two presents the design of the multimode interference (MMI) couplers used in the switch elements as splitters, combiners and waveguide crossovers. Simulation data and design methodologies for the multimode couplers of interest are detailed in this chapter. Chapter three presents the design and analysis of the NEMS-operated phase shifters. Both simulations and numerical analysis are utilized in the design of a 0º-180º capable NEMS-operated phase shifter. Additionally, the response of some of the designed photonic phased array switch elements is demonstrated in this chapter. An executive summary and conclusions sections are also included in the thesis.

Decades of efforts have pushed the replacement of electrical interconnects by optical links to the interconnects between computers, racks and circuit boards. It may be expected that optical solutions will further be used for inter-chip and intra-chip interconnects with potential benefits in bandwidth, capacity, delay, power consumption and crosstalk. Silicon integration is emerging to be the best candidate nowadays due to not only the dominant status of silicon in microelectronics but also the great advantages brought to the photonic integrated circuits (PICs). Regarding the recent breakthroughs concerning active devices on silicon substrate, the question left is no longer the feasibility of the optical interconnects based on silicon but the competitiveness of the silicon device compared with other alternatives. This thesis focuses on the study of two key components for the optical interconnects, both especially designed and fabricated for silicon platform. One is a high speed electroabsorption modulator (EAM), realized by transferring an InP-based segmented design to the hybrid silicon evanescent platform. The purpose here is to increase the speed of the silicon PICs to over 50  Gb/s or more. The other one is a high performance grating coupler, with the purpose to improve the optical interface between the silicon PICs and the outside fiber-based communication system. An general approach based on the transmission line analysis has been developed to evaluate the modulation response of an EAM with a lumped, traveling-wave, segmented or capacitively-loaded configuration. A genetic algorithm is used to optimize its configuration. This method has been applied to the design of the EAMs on hybrid silicon evanescent platform. Based on the comparison of various electrode design, segmented configuration is adopted for the target of a bandwidth over 40 GHz with as low as possible voltage and high extinction ratio. In addition to the common periodic analysis, the grating coupler is analyzed by the antenna theory assisted with an improved volume-current method, where the directionality of a grating coupler can be obtained analytically. In order to improve the performance of the grating coupler, a direct way is to address its shortcoming by e.g. increasing the coupling efficiency. For this reason, a nonuniform grating coupler with apodized grooves has been developed with a coupling efficiency of 64%, nearly a double of a standard one. Another way is to add more functionalities to the grating coupler. To do this, a polarization beam splitter (PBS) based on a bidirectional grating coupler has been proposed and experimentally demonstrated. An extinction ratio of around -20 dB, as well as a maximum coupling efficiency of over 50% for both polarizations, is achieved by such a PBS with a Bragg reflector underneath. / QC 20100906

This thesis presents an introduction to the design and simulation of a novel class of integrated photonic phased array switch elements. The main objective is to use nano-electromechanical (NEMS) based phase shifters of cascaded under-etched slot nanowires that are compact in size and require a small amount of power to operate them. The structure of the switch elements is organized such that it brings the phase shifting elements to the exterior sides of the photonic circuits. The transition slot couplers, used to interconnect the phase shifters, are designed to enable biasing one of the silicon beams of each phase shifter from an electrode located at the side of the phase shifter. The other silicon beam of each phase shifter is biased through the rest of the silicon structure of the switch element, which is taken as a ground. Phased array switch elements ranging from 2×2 up to 8×8 multiple-inputs/multiple-outputs (MIMO) are conveniently designed within reasonable footprints native to the current fabrication technologies. Chapter one presents the general layout of the various designs of the switch elements and demonstrates their novel features. This demonstration will show how waveguide disturbances in the interconnecting network from conventional switch elements can be avoided by adopting an innovative design. Some possible applications for the designed switch elements of different sizes and topologies are indicated throughout the chapter. Chapter two presents the design of the multimode interference (MMI) couplers used in the switch elements as splitters, combiners and waveguide crossovers. Simulation data and design methodologies for the multimode couplers of interest are detailed in this chapter. Chapter three presents the design and analysis of the NEMS-operated phase shifters. Both simulations and numerical analysis are utilized in the design of a 0º-180º capable NEMS-operated phase shifter. Additionally, the response of some of the designed photonic phased array switch elements is demonstrated in this chapter. An executive summary and conclusions sections are also included in the thesis.

L’intégration photonique permet de réduire la taille et la consommation d’énergie des systèmes de communication par fibre optique par rapport aux systèmes assemblés à partir de composants unitaires. Cette technologie a récemment suscité un grand intérêt avec les progrès de l’intégration sur InP et le développement de la photonique sur silicium. Cette dernière challenge la plate-forme d’intégration sur InP car des composants à hautes performances et faibles coûts peuvent être fabriqués dans des fonderies originellement développées pour la microélectronique. Les lasers sont l'une des pièces maitresses des émetteurs-récepteurs pour les communications optiques. Leur intégration sur la plateforme silicium permet de développer des émetteurs-récepteurs comprenant les fonctions critiques d’émission de lumière, de modulation et de détection sur une même puce. L’intégration de matériaux III-V par collage moléculaire sur plaque silicium permet de produire de grands volumes : plusieurs dizaines voire centaines de composants sont réalisés par wafer. Dans cette thèse, j’ai étudié théoriquement et expérimentalement les propriétés des lasers accordables basés sur des résonateurs en anneau en silicium, des lasers à rétroaction distribuée modulés directement et des lasers à haut facteur de qualité qui présentent un faible bruit de phase et d’intensité. / Photonic integration reduces the size and energy consumption of fiber optic communication systems compared to systems assembled from discrete components. This technology has recently attracted a great interest with the progress of integration on InP and the development of silicon photonics. The latter challenges the integration platform on InP as high-performance and low-cost components can be manufactured in foundries originally developed for microelectronics. Lasers are one of the main parts of transceivers for optical communications. With their integration on the silicon platform, transceivers that include the critical functions of light emission, modulation and detection on the same chip can be made. In the heterogeneous integration platform, components are manufactured in high volumes: several tens or even hundreds of components are produced per wafer. In this thesis, I studied theoretically and experimentally the properties of tunable lasers based on silicon ring resonators, directly modulated distributed feedback lasers and low noise high-quality factor lasers

This dissertation documents works on two projects, which are broadly related to photonic integration using III-V semiconductor platform for fiber-based optical communication. Our principal project aims to demonstrate continuous variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD) with InP-based photonic integrated cir cuit at the 1550 nanometer of optical wavelength. CV QKD protocols, in which the key is encoded in the quadrature variables of light, has generated immense interest over the years because of its compatibility with the existing telecom infrastructure. In this thesis, we have proposed a design of a photonic inte grated circuit potentially capable of realizing this protocol with coherent states of light. From the practical perspective, we have basically designed an optical transmitter and an optical receiver capable of carrying out coherent communi cation via the optical fiber. Initially, we established a mathematical model of the transceiver system based on the optical transfer matrix of the foundry spe cific (Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute-Germany) building blocks. We have shown that our chip design is versatile in the sense that it can support multiple modulation schemes. Based on the mathematical model, we estimated the link budget to assess the feasibility of on-chip implementation of our protocol. Then we ran a circuit level simulation using the process design kit provided by our foundry to put our analysis on a better footing. The encouraging result from this step prompted us to generate the mask layout for our transceiver chips, which we eventually submitted to the foundry. The other project in the thesis grew out of a collaboration with one of our industry partners. The goal of the project is to enhance the performance of a distributed feedback laser emitting at the 1310 nanometer of optical wavelength by optimizing its design. To that end, we first derived the expression for transmission and reflection spectrum for the laser cavity. Those expressions contained parameters which needed to be obtained from the transverse and the longitudinal mode analysis of the laser. We performed the transverse mode analysis and the longitudinal mode analysis with commercially available numerical solvers. Those mode profiles critically depend on the grating physical parameters. Therefore by tweaking grating dimensions one can control the transmission characteristics of the laser.

Modern fiber-optic networks leverage massive parallelization of communications channels in the spectral domain, as well as low-noise recovery of optical signals, to achieve high rates of information transfer. However, quantum information imposes additional constraints on optical transport networks – the no-cloning theorem forbids use of signal regeneration and many network protocols are premised on operations like Bell state measurements that prize spectral indistinguishability. Consequently, a key challenge for quantum networks is identifying a path to high-rate and high-fidelity quantum state transport.<div><br></div><div>To bridge this gap between the capabilities of classical and quantum networks, we developed techniques that harness spectral multiplexing of quantum channels, as well as that support frequency encoding. In relation to the former, we demonstrated reconfigurable connectivity over arbitrary subgraphs in a multi-user quantum network. In particular, through flexible provisioning of the pair source bandwidth, we adjusted the rate at which entanglement was distributed over any user-to-user link. To facilitate networking protocols compatible with both spectral multiplexing and frequency encoding, we synthesized a Bell state analyzer based on mixing outcomes that populate different spectral modes, in contrast to conventional approaches that are based on mixing outcomes that populate different spatial paths. This advance breaks the tradeoff between the fidelity of remote entanglement and the spectral distinguishability of photons participating in a joint measurement.<br></div><div><br></div><div>Finally, we take steps toward field deployment by developing photonic integrated circuits to migrate the aforementioned functionality to a chip-scale platform while also achieving the low loss transmission and high-fidelity operation needed for practical quantum networks.<br></div>

Les formats de modulation avancés, codant l’information sur la phase, la polarisation ou plusieurs niveaux d’amplitude de la lumière reçoivent aujourd’hui un intérêt croissant. En effet, ceux-ci permettent d’atteindre une meilleure efficacité spectrale et par conséquent des débits plus élevés. Ces caractéristiques sont actuellement très recherchées dans les télécommunications pour répondre à la demande constante d’augmentation de capacité des transmissions optiques fibrées. L’essentiel du travail effectué porte sur la génération de tels signaux dans des sources photoniques monolithiques sur InP faisant appel à un concept nouveau de commutation de phases optiques préfixées avec des modulateurs électro-absorbants. Une comparaison de notre technologie intégrée avec la technologie actuelle de génération de formats de modulation avancés démontre des possibilités nouvelles de réduction de taille, de diminution de consommation énergétique et d’évolution en vitesse de modulation jusqu’à 56 GBauds. Suite à la validation, par simulations, d’architectures de transmetteurs spécifiques pour la génération de formats de modulation avancés, nous réalisons en salle blanche les circuits photoniques intégrés d’étude. Les caractérisations statiques confirment le fonctionnement de toutes les fonctions intégrées des circuits et soulignent l’efficacité de la filière technologique. Pour une première démonstration de fonctionnalité nous choisissons un transmetteur BPSK capable de générer une modulation de phase à 12,4 GB. Ce résultat démontre la plus petite source intégrée BPSK à l’heure actuelle. Un autre circuit capable de générer des formats de modulation plus complexes est aussi caractérisé / Advanced modulation formats, encoding data on the phase, polarization or multi-level intensity of the light are currently a hot topic in the telecommunication domain. By using them, high spectral efficiency and therefore higher bit rate signals could be generated. Those characteristics are really attractive for the telecommunication systems manufacturers in order to answer to the constant need of increased bandwidth in fiber optic communications. The study of advanced modulation formats generation in Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) based on a new concept of preset phases switching by Electro-Absorption Modulators is the main task of the current work. Compared to the actual technology used for generate advanced modulations, our choice could allow a strong reduction of the dimensions and of the energy consumption of the transmitter as well as bit rate up to 56 GB. After validating specific transmitters’ architectures by simulations, we fabricated the studied photonic integrated circuits in clean room. Through static characterizations, we verify that all integrated functions of the transmitters are working and we show the efficiency of our technological choices. Using the available equipments at the lab, we prove the validity of our concept of EAM based phase switching by using a BPSK transmitter. A 12.4 GB BPSK modulation is obtained as well as a wide open eye diagram. This result demonstrates the smallest BPSK integrated photonic source at this time. Another photonic circuit able to generate more complex modulation formats is also measured

Industrial innovation is mostly driven by miniaturization. As a result of remarkable technological advancements in the fields of equipment, materials and production processes, transistor, the fundamental active component in conventional electronics, has shrunk in size. Semiconductor technology is unique in that all performance metrics are enhanced, while at the same time unit prices are reduced. Moore’s Law, which predicts that the number of components per chip will double every two years, was established in 1965, and the industry has been able to keep up with this prophetic prognosis since. Thermal management, on the other hand, has become a key limiting factor for current electronic circuits and is set to put a stop to Moore’s Law. Given the fact that complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) scaling is reaching fundamental limits, there are several new alternative processing devices and architectures that have been investigated for both traditional integrated circuit (IC) technologies and novel technologies, including new technologies aimed at contributing to advances in scaling progress and cost reductions in manufacturing operations in the coming decades. These factors will encourage the development of new information processing and memory systems, new technologies for integrating numerous features heterogeneously and new system architectural design layouts, among other things. Energy efficiency is advantageous from a sustainability perspective and for consumer electronics, for which fewer power-hungry components mean longer times between charges and smaller batteries. The creation of novel chip-scale tools that can aid in the transfer of information across optical frequencies and microscale photonics between nanoscale electronic devices is now a possibility. Bridging this technological gap may be achieved by plasmonics. The incorporation of plasmonic, photonic and electrical components on a single chip may lead to a number of innovative breakthroughs. Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) enable the realization of ultra-small, high-efficiency, ultra-responsive and CMOS-compatible devices that can be used in applications ranging from optical wireless communication systems (6G and beyond) and supercomputers to health and energy.   This thesis provides a platform from which to design nanoplasmonic devices while facilitating high-transmission and/or absorption efficiency, miniaturized size and the use of near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths for telecom applications. With a significant amount of Internet traffic transmitted optically, communication systems are further tightening the requirements for the development of new optical devices. Several new device structures based on the metal-insulator-metal (MIM) plasmonic waveguide are proposed and investigated using performance metrics. The transmission line theory (TLM) from microwave circuit theory and coupled mode theory (CMT) is studied and employed in the design process of the nanostructures, in particular to address the losses in plasmonic-based devices, which has been the major factor hampering their widespread usage in communication systems. By taking advantage of well-established microwave circuit theory (through new design that paves the way for mitigating these losses and enabling efficient transmission of power flow in the optical devices), we have suggested a number of high-transmission efficiency nanodevices that offer highly competitive performance compared with other platforms. As a result, a promising future for plasmonic technology, which would enable design and fabrication of multipurpose and multifunctional optical devices that are efficient in terms of losses, footprint and capability of integrating active devices, is anticipated. / Branschinnovation drivs främst av miniatyrisering. Som ett resultat av anmärkningsvärda tekniska framsteg inom områdena utrustning, material och produktionsprocesser kunde transistoren, den grundläggande aktiva komponenten i samtida elektronik, krympa i storlek. Halvledarteknik är unik genom att alla prestandamått förbättras, samtidigt som enhetspriserna sänks. Moores Lag, som förutspår att antalet komponenter per chip skulle fördubblas vartannat år, inrättades 1965, och branschen har kunnat hålla jämna steg med den profetiska prognosen sedan dess. Termisk hantering, å andra sidan, har blivit en viktig begränsande faktor för nuvarande elektroniska kretsar, och är inställd på att sätta stopp för Moores Lag. Med tanke på att CMOS-skalningen (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) når grundläggande gränser finns det flera nya alternativa bearbetningsanordningar och arkitekturer som har undersökts för både traditionell integrerad kretsteknik och ny teknik. Ny teknik som syftar till att bidra till framsteg i skalningen av framsteg och kostnadsminskningar i tillverkningsverksamheten under de kommande årtiondena. Dessa faktorer uppmuntrar utvecklingen av nya informationsbehandlings- och minnessystem, ny teknik för att integrera många funktioner heterogent och nya systemarkitekturdesignlayouter, bland annat. Energieffektivitet är fördelaktigt ur ett hållbarhetsperspektiv och för hemelektronik, där färre krafthungriga elektroniker innebär längre tid mellan laddningar och stimulerar för ett mindre energilagringssystem ombord. Skapandet av nya chip-scale verktyg som kan bidra till överföring av information över optiska frekvenser och mikroskala fotonik mellan elektroniska enheter i nanoskala är nu en möjlighet. Överbrygga denna tekniska klyfta kan uppnås av plasmonics. Införlivandet av plasmoniska, fotoniska och elektriska komponenter på ett enda chip kan leda till ett antal innovativa genombrott. Fotoniska integrerade kretsar (PIC-enheter) möjliggör förverkligande av ultrasmå, högeffektiva, ultraresponsiva och CMOS-kompatibla enheter som kan användas i applikationer som sträcker sig från optiska trådlösa kommunikationssystem (6G och därefter), superdatorer till hälso- och energiändamål. Denna avhandling ger en plattform för att designa nanoplasmoniska enheter samtidigt som den innehåller hög överförings- och eller absorptionseffektivitet, miniatyriserad storlek och vid önskade våglängder av nära infraröd (NIR) för telekomapplikationer. Med den betydande mängden Internettrafik som överförs optiskt skärper kommunikationssystemen ytterligare kraven för utveckling av nya optiska enheter. Flera nya enhetsstrukturer baserade på metall-isolator-metall (MIM) plasmonisk vågledare föreslås och numeriskt undersöks. Överföringslinjeteorin (TLM) från mikrovågskretsteori och kombinationslägesteori (CMT) studeras och används i nanostrukturerna. För att ta itu med de förluster i plasmonbaserade enheter som har varit den viktigaste parametern som hindrade deras utbredda användning i kommunikationssystem, genom att dra nytta av den väletablerade mikrovågskretsteorin (genom ny design som banar väg för att mildra förlusterna och möjliggöra effektiv överföring av kraftflödet i den optiska enheten).  Vi har framgångsrikt föreslagit ett antal nanodevices med hög överföringseffektivitet som erbjuder en mycket konkurrenskraftig prestanda jämfört med andra plattformar. Som ett resultat förväntar vi oss en lovande framtid för plasmonisk teknik som skulle möjliggöra design och tillverkning av mångsidiga och multifunktionella optiska enheter som är effektiva när det gäller förluster, fotavtryck och förmåga att integrera aktiva enheter. / <p>Vid tidpunkten för framläggandet av avhandlingen var följande delarbeten opublicerade: delarbete II inskickat, III, IV, V manuskript.</p><p>At the time of the licentiate defence the following papers were unpublished: paper II submitted, III, IV, V manuscript.</p>

No description available.

A compact device model along with simulations and an experimental analysis of a forward-biasedPNjunction-based silicon Mach-Zehndermodulator (MZM) with a phase-shifter length of 0.5 mm is presented. By placing the PN junction to a certain off-center such that72%of thewaveguide is p-doped, the refractive index swing at a given drive voltage swing is increased by 2% compared to the symmetric layout. The effects of the phase shifters’ length mismatch and asymmetric splitting on the modulation efficiency and extinction ratio of the modulator are simulated and compared with experimental results.Without any pre-emphasis or post-processing, a high-speed operation up to 15 Gb/s using a nonreturn-to-zero modulation format is demonstrated. A modulation efficiency (V πL) as low as 0.07 V × cm is verified and power consumption of 0.88 mW/Gb/s is recorded while a high extinction ratio of 33 dB is experimentally demonstrated. Compared to previously reported forward-biased silicon integrated modulators, without active tuning of the power splitting ratio between the arms, the extinction ratio is 10 dB higher. This MZM along with its compact structure is also sufficiently energy-efficient due to its low power consumption. Thus, it can be suitable for applications like analog signal processing and high-order amplitude modulation transmissions.