Silicon Photonics

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Practical Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Design Silicon Photonics devices and circuits, and identify the appropriate fabrication and characterisation techniques.
• Understand the significant differences between short reach and long haul optical communications.

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• Gain knowledge on guided waves
• Understand characterisation techniques that can be applied to silicon photonic materials
• Understand the motivations for silicon photonics including the technology drivers, and examples of implementation of Silicon photonic circuits
• Understand the operation of building blocks of an optical circuit at a preliminary level, including waveguides and key photonic devices such as couplers, bends, interferometers, ring resonators, modulators and sensors
• Learn about fabrication of Silicon Photonic devices, and associated fabrication techniques.
• Understand the issues surrounding integration of photonic devices as well as electronic-photonic integration

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Follow, understand and appreciate current research in Silicon Photonics.
• Undertake advanced study in the field of Silicon Photonics

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Efficiently solve scientific problems.
• Study effectively
• Think analytically.

• What is Silicon Photonics? Why is it required? What are the key technological metrics? Applications
• Fundamentals of guided waves. Modes of Si waveguides, propagation constants, effective index, mode profiles.
• Coupling to waveguides: grating couplers; butt coupling, mode transformers, inverted tapers.
• Advanced waveguides structures; Photonic crystals, slot waveguides, mid infrared waveguides.
• Waveguides loss mechanisms and loss measurements.
• Passive devices: Mach Zehnder interferometer, ring resonator, directional couplers, waveguide bends, multiplexers.
• Modulators, modulation formats and photonic-electronic integration. LiDAR.
• Photonic sensors and applications.

Resources & Reading list

Textbooks

L Pavesi & G Guillot (2006). Optical Interconnects: The Silicon Approach. Springer.

G T Reed. Silicon Photonics: The state of the art.

G T Reed & AP Knights (2004). Silicon Photonics: An Introduction. Wiley.

Michael Hochberg, Lukas Chrostowski (2015). Silicon Photonics Design: From Devices to Systems. Cambridge University Press.

L. Pavesi & D J Lockwoodt (2004). Silicon Photonics. Springer.

Summative

Summative assessment description

Referral

Referral assessment description

Repeat

Repeat assessment description

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External