A hybrid photonic integrated circuit and a method of its manufacture are provided. A SiP functional layer is fabricated on an SOI wafer. A lithium niobate thin film is bonded to the SiP functional layer. The silicon handle layer is removed from the SOI wafer to expose buried oxide, and at least one III-V die is bonded to the exposed buried oxide. In embodiments, at least one waveguiding component is fabricated in the SiP functional layer. In embodiments, the SiP functional layer comprises a top waveguiding layer.

A silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate includes a silicon dioxide layer and a silicon layer. A detection region receives a detected optical mode coupled to an incident optical mode defined by an optical waveguide in the silicon layer. The detection region consists essentially of an intrinsic semiconductor material with a spacing structure surrounding at least a portion of the detection region, which comprises p-type, n-type doped semiconductor regions adjacent to first, second portions, respectively, of the detection region. A dielectric layer is deposited over at least a portion of the spacing structure. The silicon layer is located between the dielectric layer and the silicon dioxide layer. First, second metal contact structures are formed within trenches in the dielectric layer electrically coupling to the p-type, n-type doped semiconductor regions, respectively, without contacting any of the intrinsic semiconductor material of the detection region.

Methods and systems for integrated multi-port waveguide photodetectors are disclosed and may include an optical receiver on a chip, where the optical receiver comprises a multi-port waveguide photodetector having three or more input ports. The optical receiver may be operable to receive optical signals via one or more grating couplers, couple optical signals to the photodetector via optical waveguides in the chip, and generate an output electrical signal based on the coupled optical signals using the photodetector. The photodetector may include four ports coupled to two PSGCs. The optical signals may be coupled to the photodetector via S-bends and/or tapers at ends of the optical waveguides. A width of the photodetector on sides that are coupled to the optical waveguides may be wider than a width of the optical waveguides coupled to the sides. Optical signals may be mixed with local oscillator signals using the multi-port waveguide photodetector.

An optical module configured to control a peer to peer transaction includes a silicon photonics substrate, memory formed on the silicon photonics substrate and configured to store a private key, application circuitry formed on the silicon photonics substrate and coupled to the memory, the application circuitry configured to receive, via an external interface, an electrical signal carrying instructions for executing a transaction, verify the transaction using the private key stored in the memory, and selectively generate a transaction message including information for completing the transaction, and optical communication circuitry formed on the silicon photonics substrate and responsive to the application circuitry, the optical communication circuitry configured to generate an optical signal based on the transaction message and transmit the optical signal to at least one remote entity.

A frequency diverse distributed Mach-Zehnder Interferometer may include an optical modulator on a chip, with the modulator comprising a plurality of diodes arranged along a waveguide and with each diode driven by two or more drivers. An optical signal may be received in the waveguide, and a first modulating electrical signal may be applied to a first of the plurality of diodes using a first driver and a second modulating electrical signal may be applied to the first of the plurality of diodes using a second driver. The first electrical signal may be different from the second modulating electrical signal. The second electrical signal may have a larger voltage swing than the first electrical signal. The first electrical signal voltage swing may be 0.85 volts and the second electrical signal voltage swing may be 1.5 volts, for example. The first and second electrical signals may have different frequencies.

The present application provides an electrostatic discharge guard structure for photonic platform based photodiode systems. In particular this application provides a photodiode assembly comprising: a photodiode (such as a Si or SiGe photodiode); a waveguide (such as a silicon waveguide); and a guard structure, wherein the guard structure comprises a diode, extends about all or substantially all of the periphery of the Si or SiGe photodiode and allows propagation of light from the silicon waveguide into the Si or SiGe photodiode.

The Hybrid Photonic Plasmonic Interconnect (HyPPI) combines both low loss photonic signal propagation and passive routing with ultra-compact plasmonic devices. These optical interconnects therefore uniquely combine fast operational data-bandwidths (in hundreds of Gbps) for light manipulation with low optical attenuation losses by hybridizing low loss photonics with strong light-matter-interaction plasmonics to create, modulate, switch and detect light efficiently at the same time. Initial implementations were considered for on-chip photonic integration, but also promising for free space or fiber-based systems. In general two technical options exist, which distinguished by the method the electric-optic conversion is executed: the extrinsic modulation method consists of an continuous wave source such as an LED or laser operating at steady power output, and signal encoding is done via an electro-optic modulator downstream of the source in the interconnect. In contrast, in the intrinsic method, the optical source is directly amplitude modulated.

An integrated structure and method of formation provide a lower level waveguide having a core of a first material and a higher level waveguide having a core of a second material and a coupling region for coupling the two waveguides together. The different core materials provided different coupled waveguides having different light loss characteristics.

An avalanche diode includes an absorption region in a germanium body epitaxially grown on a silicon body including a multiplication region. Aspect-ratio trapping is used to suppress dislocation growth in the vicinity of the absorption region.

Apparatuses and methods for photonic communication and photonic addressing are disclosed herein. An example apparatus includes a photonic source layer that provides a plurality of photonic sources, each at a different wavelength, a plurality of second layers, and a third layer. Each of the plurality of second layers may be associated with a respective wavelength, and each of the plurality of second layers may include photonic filters tuned to their respective wavelength, a photonic modulator, and a photonic detector. The third layer may include a plurality of photonic circuits, with each of the plurality of photonic circuits associated with a respective second layer of the plurality of second layers. Additionally, each of the plurality of photonic circuits may include a photonic filter tuned to a respective wavelength associated with a respective second layer, a photonic detector and a photonic modulator. Modulated and unmodulated photonic signals may be provided from the second layers to the third layer and from the third layer to the second layers, where the respective wavelengths of the photonic signals acts like an address for each of the plurality of second layers.