Foundry-compatible thin-film lithium niobate electro-optic modulators

Both long haul and short distance network interconnects for conventional data networks and intra-/interchip data links continue to scale in complexity and bandwidth. This has signalled the emergence of the optical interconnect, with silicon photonics being the leading candidate due to its unique combination of low fabrication costs and performance enhancements. Electronic-photonic integration compatibility with CMOS technology, makes integrated photonic circuits more appealing. Hence, it is very critical to make the fabrication of integrated photonic devices as foundry compatible as possible to fully utilize CMOS foundry capabilities. We have proposed a fabrication method for thin film lithium niobate (LN)-based electro-optic modulators which has excellent compatibility with silicon photonic foundry processes and minimizes the back end of the line processes. This paves the way for large scale production of the hybrid Silicon-lithium niobate devices.