integration technology
rhombus4
Mi and his team are clearly identifying and eliminating the barriers to
commercializing their technology. Patent application filing is already underway
through McGill University, and they have also initiated a collaboration with Reflex
Photonics, a Montreal-based start up that is developing high-speed optical
connections for semiconductor packaging and data transfer
counterparts. “For some applications you want a single
wavelength, but for other applications, such as
wavelength division multiplexing, you need multiple, evenly
spaced channels”, explains Mi. “One of the objectives of
our research is to develop these multiple wavelength tube
lasers.”
Modulation speeds for these lasers are expected to be
well over 40 GHz, and Mi believes that this can be
increased to the terahertz range by scaling devices so
that all of their dimensions are less than a micron. But he
admits that realizing this goal will be particularly tough.
Another aspect of his technology that he is looking to
advance is the precision with which the micro-tube is
positioned on the silicon surface.
The existing substrate-to-substrate transfer process
cannot guarantee that the laser will be successfully
Figure 4. Zetian Mi’s team have calculated the optical
resonance modes for a rolled-up micro-tube
with a 5.6 µm diameter and a wall thickness of 100
nm using a finite-difference time domain method
coupled to a waveguide on the silicon IC. But Mi’s team
is addressing this issue by developing a process to move
the tubes on the silicon surface. And if the Van de Waals
forces are not strong enough to lock them in position for a
commercial product, then they can be bonded in place
with passivation techniques.
Mi and his team are clearly identifying and eliminating the
barriers to commercializing their technology. Patent
application filing is already underway through McGill
University, and they have also initiated a collaboration with
Reflex Photonics, a Montreal-based start up that is
developing high-speed optical connections for
semiconductor packaging and data transfer.
Figure 3: Optically pumping with 632.8 nm excitation
from a HeNe laser produced three distinct lasing lines. So it may be that it is a novel, ring-based approach that
The absorbed power for this measurement was about will hold the key to a long and happy marriage between
23 µW silicon ICs and III-V lasers.
November / December 2009 www.compoundsemiconductor.net 21
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44