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OSE6421 - Integrated Photonics

The course reviews working principle, system functionality and design and fabrication issues of semiconductor integrated photonic devices and circuits for optical telecommunication and interconnect applications.

Course Goals

The course complements the OSE courses on ‘fundamentals of optoelectronic devices’, ‘computational photonics’ and ‘optical communication systems’ to deepen students’ education in photonic engineering.  The course’s goal is elucidating the key principles underlying the analysis and design of integrated photonic devices and circuits, with an emphasis on the engineering and practical aspects of them.  The students should be able to understand and design integrated photonic devices and circuits at the end of the course.  The course also introduces selected advanced research topics currently pursued in the field.

Course Approach

In order to analyze and design integrated photonic devices and circuits, it is necessary to study the components that constitute it, the principles that underlie their operation, and their functional characteristics from the perspective of a device engineer. To this extent, the course will begin with very briefly reviewing optoelectronic device principles as well as optical waveguide design. It will then quickly get into discussions on advanced integrated devices and circuits such as optical switches, optical transceivers, wavelength converters, arrayed waveguide gratings, etc.  The course will end with more state-of-the-art topics such as silicon photonics.

Prerequisite

  • OSE 6111 Optical Wave Propagation
  • Basic knowledge of photonics, semiconductors and optoelectronics at the undergraduate level is assumed. Knowledge of optoelectronics at graduate level (OSE5414 Fundamentals of Optoelectronic Devices) is helpful.

Suggested Textbooks:

  • Okamoto, Fundamentals of Optical Waveguides, 2nd Ed., Academic Press, 2006.
  • S. Chang, Fundamentals of Guided-Wave Optoelectronic Devices, Cambridge University Press, 2010.
  • L. Chuang, Physics of Photonic Devices, 2nd Ed., Wiley, 2009.
  • G. Hunsperger, Integrated Optics: Theory and Applications, 5th Edition, Springer-Verlag, Berlin Germany, 2002.
  • M. Liu, Photonic Devices, Cambridge 2005.

Course Outline

  1. Introduction: Why Integrated Photonics?
  2. Integrated Optical Waveguides
    1. Waveguide mode analysis
      • Slab (1-D) waveguides
      • Analytical solutions to 2-D waveguides
      • Numerical analysis of 2-D and 3-D waveguides
    2. Waveguide platforms on various materials and their fabrication techniques
  3. Analysis and Modeling Tools for Integrated Photonics
    1. Coupled-mode theory
      • Applied to waveguide directional couplers, Mach-Zehnder interferometers/modulators and grating waveguides
    2. Super-mode analysis
      • Applied to tapered waveguides and Y-junction splitter/combiners and Mach-Zehnder interferometers/modulators
  4. Coupling In and Out of Photonic Integrated Circuits
    • Optical mode converters, prism and grating couplers
  5. Energy Loss in Optical Waveguides
    • Sources of optical loss and their measurement techniques
  6. Advanced Passive Photonic Devices
    1. Wavelength-division multiplexing components
      • Mulitplexers, Demultiplexers
      • Multimode interferometers
      • Arrayed-waveguide gratings
    2. Integrated photonic filters and delay lines
      • Integrated Fabry-Perot resonators
      • Microring resonators
      • Bragg grating waveguides
  7. Electrooptic Modulators
    1. RF design and high-speed performance
  8. III-V Optoelectronic Integrated Circuits
    1. Integrated transmitters and receivers
  9. Silicon Photonics
    1. Introduction: why silicon photonics?
    2. Passive devices: waveguides, couplers, resonators, etc.
    3. Active devices: Modulators and detectors
  10. Potential Future Directions and Applications

Syllabi