Silicon nitride based plasmonic components for CMOS back-end-of-line integration

Silicon nitride based plasmonic components for CMOS back-end-of-line integration

Optics Express

10.1364/OE.21.023376

http://www.opticsinfobase.org/abstract.cfm?URI=oe-21-20-23376

Shiyang Zhu, G. Q. Lo, D. L. Kwong

25 September 2013

Silicon nitride waveguides provide low propagation loss but weak mode confinement due to the relatively small refractive index contrast between the Si3N4 core and the SiO2 cladding. On the other hand, metal-insulator-metal (MIM) plasmonic waveguides offer strong mode confinement but large propagation loss. In this work, MIM-like plasmonic waveguides and passive devices based on horizontal Cu-Si3N4-Cu or Cu-SiO2-Si3N4-SiO2-Cu structures are integrated in the conventional Si3N4 waveguide circuits using standard CMOS backend processes, and are characterized around 1550-nm telecom wavelengths using the conventional fiber-waveguide-fiber method. The Cu-Si3N4(~100 nm)-Cu devices exhibit ~0.78-dB/μm propagation loss for straight waveguides, ~38% coupling efficiency with the conventional 1-μm-wide Si3N4 waveguide through a 2-μm-long taper coupler, ~0.2-dB bending loss for sharp 90° bends, and ~0.1-dB excess loss for ultracompact 1 × 2 and 1 × 4 power splitters. Inserting a ~10-nm SiO2 layer between the Si3N4 core and the Cu cover (i.e., the Cu-SiO2(~10 nm)-Si3N4(~100 nm)-SiO2(~10 nm)-Cu devices), the propagation loss and the coupling efficiency are improved to ~0.37 dB/μm and ~52% while the bending loss and the excess loss are degraded to ~3.2 dB and ~2.1 dB, respectively. These experimental results are roughly consistent with the numerical simulation results after taking the influence of possible imperfect fabrication into account. Ultracompact plasmonic ring resonators with 1-μm radius are demonstrated with an extinction ratio of ~18 dB and a quality factor of ~84, close to the theoretical prediction. © 2013 OSA

PublisherCopyrights

https://oar.a-star.edu.sg/communities-collections/articles/11730

1094-4087

Institute of Microelectronics