A Review of the Reliability of Integrated IR Laser Diodes for Silicon Photonics

Buffolo, Matteo; Santi, Carlo De; Norman, Justin; Shang, Chen; Bowers, John E.; Meneghesso, G.; Zanoni, Enrico; Meneghini, Matteo

doi:10.3390/electronics10222734

Cited by 8 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…In the future, a cheaper fully-epitaxial integration of the light source is expected to take place through the adoption of InAs quantum-dot laser diodes grown on a silicon substrate, which are capable of achieving useful lifetimes in excess of 20 years in typical operating conditions 2 . In both cases, recent reports show that these technologies can still suffer from time-dependent non-recoverable degradation 3 , especially when the devices are aged in accelerated and/or sub-optimal operating conditions. More mature sources based on the heterogeneous integration of active devices grown through fully-optimized III-V processes, such as 1550 nm DBR lasers 4 , are pretty robust toward optically-induced mirror damage 5,6 , due to the separation between optical cavity and semiconductor material, but can suffer from reliability issues involving contact degradation and dopant/impurity migration.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lifetime-limiting mechanisms of integrated IR sources for silicon photonics

Buffolo,

Zenari,

De Santi

et al. 2024

Smart Photonic and Optoelectronic Integrated Circuits 2024

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The fully epitaxial integration of IR laser sources into modern photonic circuits built on Si or SOI wafers is severely limited by the thermal-and lattice-constant mismatch between the substrate and the III-V layers that are required to achieve efficient solid-state lasing in the near infrared range. To overcome these limitations, modern commerciallyavailable SiPh technologies employ selective wafer/device bonding techniques that allow to separately grow the III-V emitter and to integrate it into the photonic integrated circuit (PIC) at a later processing stage. Conversely, state-ofthe-art devices leverage InAs quantum-dot (QD)-based active regions to highly reduce the sensitivity of the laser diode to the presence of the extended defects, which are generated as a consequence of the heteroepitaxial growth. In term of reliability, high levels of maturity have been demonstrated by both types of sources, either on the field or at laboratory level. Despite this, several degradation mechanisms still affect the long-term operation of such devices, thus limiting their useful lifetime. The aim of this paper is to discuss on the dominant degradation processes related to integrated laser sources for silicon photonics. This goal is achieved by summarizing some of the most recent results that have been obtained on two different, but well representative, classes of solid-state lasers: heterogeneously integrated quantum well (QW)-based emitters, such as vertical-cavity silicon-integrated lasers (VCSILs) emitting at 945 nm and III-V 1.55 m lasers bonded on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrates, and InAs QD laser diodes (LDs) epitaxially-grown on silicon, emitting in the 1.31 m window.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lifetime-limiting mechanisms of integrated IR sources for silicon photonics

Buffolo,

Zenari,

De Santi

et al. 2024

Smart Photonic and Optoelectronic Integrated Circuits 2024

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Different from all these systems, laser light is emerging as a novel option to destroy both viruses and bacteria. Compared to other light sources, laser offers the advantage of higher average power, lower cost and greater reliability ( Buffolo et al, 2021 ). In addition, laser light is monochromatic, coherent, and unidirectional, which allows the selection of the optimal wavelength to exert a specific biological effect.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%