Polymer waveguides for electro-optical integration in data centers and high-performance computers.

To satisfy the intra- and inter-system bandwidth requirements of future data centers and high-performance computers, low-cost low-power high-throughput optical interconnects will become a key enabling technology. To tightly integrate optics with the computing hardware, particularly in the context of CMOS-compatible silicon photonics, optical printed circuit boards using polymer waveguides are considered as a formidable platform. IBM Research has already demonstrated the essential silicon photonics and interconnection building blocks.

Flip-chip optical couplers with scalable I/O count for silicon photonics.

A scalable and tolerant optical interfacing method based on flip-chip bonding is developed for silicon photonics packaging. Bidirectional optical couplers between multiple silicon-on-insulator waveguides and single-mode polymer waveguides are designed and fabricated. Successful operation is verified experimentally in the 1530-1570 nm spectral window.

Photovoltaic nanocrystal scintillators hybridized on Si solar cells for enhanced conversion efficiency in UV.

We propose and demonstrate semiconductor nanocrystal based photovoltaic scintillators integrated on solar cells to enhance photovoltaic device parameters including spectral responsivity, open circuit voltage, short circuit current, fill factor, and solar conversion efficiency in the ultraviolet. Hybridizing (CdSe)ZnS core-shell quantum dots of 2.4 nm in diameter on multi-crystalline Si solar cells for the first time, we show that the solar conversion efficiency is enhanced 2 folds under white light illumination similar to the solar spectrum.