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Wang, Tianye

University of British Columbia

Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) have made remarkable strides, enabling the realization of complex optical functions within a compact and highly reliable framework. However, high-performance PICs often suffer from significant insertion losses due to numerous optical components. Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers (SOAs) are essential for offsetting these losses, providing amplification of optical signals via stimulated emission. SOAs operate over wide wavelength bands (e.g., 1480nm to 1560nm) and are relatively inexpensive, offering substantial gains. While there are several approaches to integrating SOAs onto silicon photonic chips, including monolithic and hybrid integration, the former presents challenges in manufacturability and cost. In this work, we propose a flexible hybrid integration of SOAs onto silicon photonic chips using Photonic Wire Bonds (PWBs). PWBs are three-dimensional, nano-printed, freeform polymer waveguides that facilitate efficient coupling between optical components with high alignment tolerances and comparatively low insertion losses. The proposed integration method effectively compensates for the significant insertion losses in high-performance PICs, demonstrating its potential for enhancing the performance and reliability of these advanced photonic systems. Measurements on a connectorized SOA are presented, showing a peak on-chip gain of 10.6dB at 1510nm when applying a 150mA bias current to it. The PWB-connectorized SOA has a wavelength-dependent gain which was measured from 1480nm to 1555nm, the peak gain being obtained at 1510nm. In addition, the gain depends on the bias current applied, increasing with higher bias currents but saturating when the bias current exceeds 150mA. The PWB-connectorized SOA is also sensitive to the power of the input signal, the gain was larger for lower input powers. Varying the polarization state of the input to our PWB-connectorized SOA changed the measured gain by 5.85dB. Additionally, a comparative study of a second SOA sample was conducted to validate the results and ensure measurement reliability.

Text

2024-10-11

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/89451

Electrical and Computer Engineering

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/