Silicon Photonics

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Practical Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

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

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:

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

Knowledge and Understanding

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

• Understand the motivations for silicon photonics including the technology drivers, and examples of implementation of Silicon photonic circuits
• Gain knowledge on guided waves
• 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
• Understand the issues surrounding integration of photonic devices as well as electronic-photonic integration
• Understand characterisation techniques that can be applied to silicon photonic materials
• Learn about fabrication of Silicon Photonic devices, and associated fabrication techniques.

• 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 & AP Knights (2004). Silicon Photonics: An Introduction. Wiley.

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

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

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

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External