Dual-polarization multiplexing amorphous Si:H grating couplers for silicon photonic transmitters in the photonic BiCMOS backend of line.

In this paper, we report on polarization combining two-dimensional grating couplers (2D GCs) on amorphous Si:H, fabricated in the backend of line of a photonic BiCMOS platform. The 2D GCs can be used as an interface of a hybrid silicon photonic coherent transmitter, which can be implemented on bulk Si wafers. The fabricated 2D GCs operate in the telecom C-band and show an experimental coupling efficiency of - 5 dB with a wafer variation of ± 1.

Toward coherent O-band data center interconnects.

Upcoming generations of coherent intra/inter data center interconnects currently lack a clear path toward a reduction of cost and power consumption, which are the driving factors for these data links. In this work, the tradeoffs associated with a transition from coherent C-band to O-band silicon photonics are addressed and evaluated. The discussion includes the fundamental components of coherent data links, namely the optical components, fiber link and transceivers.