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Show 22 Lawrence Schlitt college of engineering EFFECT OF THERMAL STRESS ON SILICON PHOTONIC WAVEGUIDE OPERATION Lawrence Schlitt (Priyank Kalla, Steve Blair) Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering University of Utah UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH ABSTRACTS Priyank Kalla Steve Blair The integrated photonics industry, mainly based on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology, has recently made advancements in research. As a result, the application for large-scale optoelectronic integration has become a feasible option in the computer industry. This means that for the first time we may be capable of building computer chips that move information with a combination of light and electricity. This is going to require specific design and manufacturing techniques for hybrid electro-optical integration. The operation of optical components are sensitive to temperature variations which may arise from power dissipation of electronic components. To achieve large-scale integration, accurate modeling schemes characterizing heat diffusion and its ef-fects on optical signal integrity are necessary to improve the capability of SOI optoelectronic designs. The thermo-electric effect and the photo-thermal effect become problematic with the integration of these hybrid systems. To study this phenomenon, three standard waveguide geometries (slab, rib, and rectan-gular) were simulated with an externally applied thermal stress. The results are still being processed and compared to current textbook models being used to show the variation in device behaviors. The standard model currently used is: where the change in temperature ( ) results in a change in refractive index ( ). This change in refractive index ( ) then in turn introduces a signal phase shift ( ), where the product of the refractive index change ( ) with the length of material ( ) and the propagat-ing wave number ( ) result in the phase shift. A phase distortion to an optical signal can alter device behaviors significantly in that they no longer function as desired. Accurate thermal-modeling of photonic components will provide the necessary parameters for designs to operate properly under the potentially harmful influence of temperature. |
