Optical integrated structures and circuits on silicon: Dissertation

The silicon nitride optical waveguides, a lateral photodetector and a transistor are integrated monolithically using a modified metal gate CMOS process, showing the feasibility of fabricating both optical and electronic functions on the same chip. Based on this process, two types of integrated optical coupling elements were fabricated for fiberoptic sensor applications. A bidirectional method of measuring propagation losses from scattered light in a channel waveguide is presented. A new type of polarization splitter based on a Fresnel mirror is demonstrated using silicon nitride as a waveguide core. These circuits are designed to operate at a wavelength of 633 nm. Numerical scalar methods were applied to estimate the behaviour of the polarization splitter, and 2, 4 and 16-channel wavelength division multiplexers based on the Fresnel mirror. The theoretical considerations are shown to be in good agreement with experimental data. The silica-on-silicon technology is studied for telecommunication applications and used for a new wide passband wavelength division multiplexer operating at the wavelength regions of 1.3/1.55 EMBED Equation µm. The device was also realized on fused quartz substrate. A new method of controlling stress-induced birefringence in silicon oxynitride single mode waveguides on silicon is demonstrated using precision prism coupling measurement equipment. Experiments were made on doped silica planar waveguides and the results interpreted in order to understand the refractive index behaviour of the films.