Si-based integrated optical and photonic microstructures

The design, fabrication and properties of various types of optical waveguides on silicon substrates as well as Fabry-Perot devices accomplished mainly at the Microelectronics Center of VTT Electronics are introduced. Different waveguides, directional couplers, multimode interference (MMI) couplers, switches and power splitters have been studied. For waveguide fabrication on silicon substrates principally three materials were used depending on the application: silicon oxynitride (SiOxNy), silicon nitride (Si3N4) and silicon on insulator (SOI). Silicon waveguides with large Si-core and a thermo-optical switch have been fabricated by SOI technology. Silicon Fabry-Perot structures have been fabricated for wavelength scanning applications in instrumentation and to measure chirp properties of lasers used in optical communications