Post-Release Deformation and Motion Control of Photonic Waveguide Beams by Tuneable Electrothermal Actuators in Thick SiO2
Photonic packaging, which includes high-precision assembly of photonic sub-systems, is currently a bottleneck in the development of commercially-available integrated photonic products. In the pursuit of a fully-automated, high-precision, and cost-effective photonic alignment scheme for two multi-cha...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2018-09-01
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| Series: | Micromachines |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/9/10/496 |
| _version_ | 1811338693871403008 |
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| author | Kai Wu Marcel Tichem |
| author_facet | Kai Wu Marcel Tichem |
| author_sort | Kai Wu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Photonic packaging, which includes high-precision assembly of photonic sub-systems, is currently a bottleneck in the development of commercially-available integrated photonic products. In the pursuit of a fully-automated, high-precision, and cost-effective photonic alignment scheme for two multi-channel photonic chips, this paper explores different designs of the on-chip electrothermal actuators for positioning mechanically-flexible waveguide structures. The final alignment goal is ∼100 nm waveguide to waveguide. The on-chip actuators, particularly for out-of-plane actuation, are built in a 16 μm-thick SiO 2 photonic-material stack with 5 μm-thick poly-Si as an electrothermal element. A major challenge of out-of-plane positioning is a 6 μm height difference of the waveguides to be aligned, due to different built-up material stacks, together with a misalignment tolerance of 1 μm–2 μm from the pre-assembly (flip-chip) process. Therefore, the bimorph-actuator design needs to compensate this height difference, and provide sufficient motion to align the waveguides. We propose to exploit the post-release deformation of so-called short-loop bimorph actuator designs to meet these joint demands. We explore different design variants based on the heater location and the integration of actuator beams with waveguide beams. The actuator design (with 30 μm poly-Si and 900 μm SiO 2 in length) has ∼8 μm out-of-plane deflection and is able to generate ∼4 μm motion, which meets the design goal. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T18:14:55Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-2be9d463bcd147b6bb2b0269cf319741 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2072-666X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T18:14:55Z |
| publishDate | 2018-09-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Micromachines |
| spelling | doaj.art-2be9d463bcd147b6bb2b0269cf3197412022-12-22T02:35:43ZengMDPI AGMicromachines2072-666X2018-09-0191049610.3390/mi9100496mi9100496Post-Release Deformation and Motion Control of Photonic Waveguide Beams by Tuneable Electrothermal Actuators in Thick SiO2Kai Wu0Marcel Tichem1Precision and Microsystems Engineering (PME), Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 2, 2628 CD Delft, The NetherlandsPrecision and Microsystems Engineering (PME), Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 2, 2628 CD Delft, The NetherlandsPhotonic packaging, which includes high-precision assembly of photonic sub-systems, is currently a bottleneck in the development of commercially-available integrated photonic products. In the pursuit of a fully-automated, high-precision, and cost-effective photonic alignment scheme for two multi-channel photonic chips, this paper explores different designs of the on-chip electrothermal actuators for positioning mechanically-flexible waveguide structures. The final alignment goal is ∼100 nm waveguide to waveguide. The on-chip actuators, particularly for out-of-plane actuation, are built in a 16 μm-thick SiO 2 photonic-material stack with 5 μm-thick poly-Si as an electrothermal element. A major challenge of out-of-plane positioning is a 6 μm height difference of the waveguides to be aligned, due to different built-up material stacks, together with a misalignment tolerance of 1 μm–2 μm from the pre-assembly (flip-chip) process. Therefore, the bimorph-actuator design needs to compensate this height difference, and provide sufficient motion to align the waveguides. We propose to exploit the post-release deformation of so-called short-loop bimorph actuator designs to meet these joint demands. We explore different design variants based on the heater location and the integration of actuator beams with waveguide beams. The actuator design (with 30 μm poly-Si and 900 μm SiO 2 in length) has ∼8 μm out-of-plane deflection and is able to generate ∼4 μm motion, which meets the design goal.http://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/9/10/496photonic packagingflip-chip assemblysilicon dioxidepolycrystalline siliconMEMSbimorph actuatorelectrothermal actuatormultilayer beampost-release deformationout-of-plane motionphotonic waveguide alignment |
| spellingShingle | Kai Wu Marcel Tichem Post-Release Deformation and Motion Control of Photonic Waveguide Beams by Tuneable Electrothermal Actuators in Thick SiO2 Micromachines photonic packaging flip-chip assembly silicon dioxide polycrystalline silicon MEMS bimorph actuator electrothermal actuator multilayer beam post-release deformation out-of-plane motion photonic waveguide alignment |
| title | Post-Release Deformation and Motion Control of Photonic Waveguide Beams by Tuneable Electrothermal Actuators in Thick SiO2 |
| title_full | Post-Release Deformation and Motion Control of Photonic Waveguide Beams by Tuneable Electrothermal Actuators in Thick SiO2 |
| title_fullStr | Post-Release Deformation and Motion Control of Photonic Waveguide Beams by Tuneable Electrothermal Actuators in Thick SiO2 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Post-Release Deformation and Motion Control of Photonic Waveguide Beams by Tuneable Electrothermal Actuators in Thick SiO2 |
| title_short | Post-Release Deformation and Motion Control of Photonic Waveguide Beams by Tuneable Electrothermal Actuators in Thick SiO2 |
| title_sort | post release deformation and motion control of photonic waveguide beams by tuneable electrothermal actuators in thick sio2 |
| topic | photonic packaging flip-chip assembly silicon dioxide polycrystalline silicon MEMS bimorph actuator electrothermal actuator multilayer beam post-release deformation out-of-plane motion photonic waveguide alignment |
| url | http://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/9/10/496 |
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