title: Low-loss polysilicon waveguides fabricated in an emulated high-volume electronics process.
abstract: We measure end-of-line polysilicon waveguide propagation losses of ~6-15 dB/cm across the telecommunication O-, E-, S-, C- and L-bands in a process representative of high-volume product integration. The lowest loss of 6.2 dB/cm is measured at 1550 nm in a polysilicon waveguide with a 120 nm x 350 nm core geometry. The reported waveguide characteristics are measured after the thermal cycling of the full CMOS electronics process that results in a 32% increase in the extracted material loss relative to the as-crystallized waveguide samples. The measured loss spectra are fit to an absorption model using defect state parameters to identify the dominant loss mechanism in the end-of-line and as-crystallized polysilicon waveguides.
authors.affiliation: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA. jsorcutt@mit.edu
authors.forename: Jason S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Orcutt
authors.forename: Sanh D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kramer
authors.forename: Karan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mehta
authors.forename: Hanqing
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Stojanović
authors.forename: Rajeev J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Ram
mesh_terms: D004581:Electronics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D012031:Refractometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012825:Silicon / Q000737:chemistry*; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013685:Telecommunications / Q000295:instrumentation*
chemical_list: D012825:Silicon