Graphene-on-SiC - ISOM

NEWS ANALYSIS
Hybrid silicon prepares
to displace InP
photonic chips
Will hybrid silicon be the platform of choice
for complex photonic integrated circuits?
Compound Semiconductor talks to
Martijn Heck from the University of
California, Santa Barbara, to find out more.
in 2006, rEsEarChErs at thE
UniVErsitY oF CaliFornia, santa
Barbara, and intel unveiled the world’s
first electrically pumped hybrid silicon
laser. taking advantage of the lightemitting
properties of iii-V semiconductors
as well as mature Cmos processes to
fabricate lasers on a silicon wafer, the
device unlocked the door to cheap, massproduced
silicon optical devices.
Fast forward seven years and many
believe the stage is now well and truly set
for a hybrid silicon photonic revolution.
myriad hybrid devices − from laser
sources and optical amplifiers to highspeed
modulators, waveguides and
polarisation components − have been
developed, forming the building blocks
of photonic integrated circuits (PiCs).
UCsB has developed tapered mode
converters to integrate hybrid silicon
components with passive silicon-oninsulator
substrates and used quantum
well intermixing and die-bonding to
18 www.compoundsemiconductor.net April/May 2013