Sbir phase i: development of a chip technology for cheaper and easier photonic device manufacturing

Photonect Interconnect Solutions Inc. received a $275,000 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation under the NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships federal grant program (CFDA 47.084) to develop a chip technology for cheaper and easier photonic device manufacturing. The company will focus on a new fusion splicing machine and novel silicon dioxide mode converter that enables faster, more accurate, and lower cost fiber placement on chips compared to existing technologies. This is expected to significantly improve packaging speed from 10 minutes to 2 minutes, increase power efficiency by 4 times, and reduce costs by 50%. Completion of research objectives to further reduce coupling losses and demonstrate splicing compatibility with foundry chips could result in extremely low loss photonic packaging applicable for high-volume production across telecommunications, data communications, sensor, and defense industries served by the company. The award period is from June 15, 2023 through May 31, 2024.

Abstract

The broader impact/commercial potential of this small business innovation research (sbir) phase i project is the advancement of manufacturing technologies for industries such as telecommunications, data communications, sensors. And defense. Most of the internet relies on data centers to process data, and this processing is accomplished via a device called an optical transceiver. These transceivers house an optical fiber, which is as thin as a single strand of human hair, attached to a chip device to transfer information to/from the data centers. The optical fiber is so small that IT is very difficult to precisely connect the fiber to the chip, often resulting in performance losses. With >100,000 transceivers per data center and >2,700 data centers in the united states, IT is important to have good fiber connection for reduced power consumption and increased performance. Technology companies are also looking for chips with multiple fibers, making the need for better fiber placement even greater. In this project, the company focuses a new technology that makes fiber placement on a chip faster, more accurate, and cheaper. This new technology uses a special component that enables fiber placement with precision while improving the device performance 4 times. This small business innovation research (sbir) phase i project addresses major pain points for optical transceiver companies: cost and time to package an optical fiber to a silicon photonic chip. The proposed product consists of a fusion splicing machine and a novel silicon dioxide mode converter. The mode converter localizes heat from the laser, enabling fusion while simultaneously decreasing the loss level. This technology packages silicon photonic devices without compromising performance. IT significantly improves packaging speed from 10 minutes to 2 minutes, increases power efficiency by 4X, and provides a 50% savings. The company has demonstrated coupling losses lower than the industry standard of 3 DB on specialty chips. The research objectives involve improving coupling losses to around 1 DB, demonstrating splicing with foundry chips, and improving the strength of the fusion splice for improved reliability. The completion of these objectives will result in extremely low loss photonic packaging applicable for use with foundry chips, increasing the commercialization potential of the technology. This technology will enable customers to package single or multi-fiber devices with high efficiency, low cost, and at high volumes, ultimately increasing production capacity across many industries. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.