Generating optical combs in a small form factor is of utmost importance for a wide range of applications such as datacom, LIDAR, and spectroscopy. Electrically powered mode-locked diode lasers provide combs with a high conversion efficiency, while simultaneously allowing for a dense spectrum of lines. In recent years, a number of integrated chip scale mode-locked lasers have been demonstrated. However, thus far these devices suffer from significant linear and nonlinear losses in the passive cavity, limiting the attainable cavity size and noise performance, eventually inhibiting their application scope. Here, we leverage the ultra-low losses of silicon-nitride waveguides to demonstrate a heterogeneously integrated III-V-on-silicon-nitride passively mode-locked laser with a narrow 755 MHz line spacing, a radio frequency linewidth of 1 Hz and an optical linewidth below 200 kHz. Moreover, these comb sources are fabricated with wafer scale technology, hence enabling low-cost and high volume manufacturable devices.

We demonstrate electrically pumped, heterogeneously integrated lasers on thin-film lithium niobate, featuring electro-optic wavelength tunability.

Mode-locked lasers find their use in a large number of applications, for instance, in spectroscopic sensing, distance measurements, and optical communication. To enable widespread use of mode-locked lasers, their on-chip integration is desired. In recent years, there have been multiple demonstrations of monolithic III-V and heterogeneous III-V-on-silicon mode-locked lasers. However, the pulse energy, noise performance, and stability of these mode-locked lasers are limited by the relatively high linear and nonlinear waveguide loss, and the high temperature sensitivity of said platforms. Here, we demonstrate a heterogeneous III-V-on-silicon-nitride (III-V-on-SiN) electrically pumped mode-locked laser. SiN’s low waveguide loss, negligible two-photon absorption at telecom wavelengths, and small thermo-optic coefficient enable low-noise mode-locked lasers with high pulse energies and excellent temperature stability. Our mode-locked laser emits at a wavelength of 1.6 μm, has a pulse repetition rate of 3 GHz, a high on-chip pulse energy of ≈2 pJ, a narrow RF linewidth of 400 Hz, and an optical linewidth <1 MHz. The SiN photonic circuits are fabricated on 200 mm silicon wafers in a CMOS pilot line and include an amorphous silicon waveguide layer for efficient coupling from the SiN to the III-V waveguide. The III-V integration is done by micro-transfer-printing, a technique that enables the transfer of thin-film devices in a massively parallel manner on a wafer scale.

A novel hybrid integration strategy for compact, broadband and highly efficient mmWave on-chip antennas is demonstrated by realizing a hybrid on-chip antenna, operating in the [27.5-29.5] GHz band. A cavity-backed stacked patch antenna is implemented on a 600 µm-thick silicon substrate by using airfilled substrate-integrated-waveguide technology. A hybrid onchip approach is adopted in which the antenna feed and an air-filled cavity are integrated on chip and the stacked patch configuration is implemented on a high frequency PCB laminate that supports the chip. A prototype of the hybrid on-chip antenna is validated, demonstrating an impedance bandwidth of 3.7 GHz. In free-space conditions, a boresight gain of 7.3 dBi and a front-to-back ratio of 20.3 dB at 28.5 GHz are achieved. Moreover, the antenna is fabricated using standard silicon fabrication techniques and features a total antenna efficiency above 90 % in the targeted frequency band of operation. The high performance, in combination with the compact antenna footprint of 0.49 λmin × 0.49 λmin, makes it an ideal building block to construct broadband antenna arrays with a broad steering range.

Silicon photonics (SiPh) is a disruptive technology in the field of integrated photonics and has experienced rapid development over the past two decades. Various high-performance Si and Ge/Si-based components have been developed on this platform that allow for complex photonic integrated circuits (PICs) with small footprint. These PICs have found use in a wide range of applications. Nevertheless, some non-native functions are still desired, despite the versatility of Si, to improve the overall performance of Si PICs and at the same time cut the cost of the eventual Si photonic system-on-chip. Heterogeneous integration is verified as an effective solution to address this issue, e.g. through die-wafer-bonding and flip-chip. In this paper, we discuss another technology, micro-transfer printing, for the integration of nonnative material films/opto-electronic components on SiPh-based platforms. This technology allows for efficient use of non-native materials and enables the (co-)integration of a wide range of materials/devices on wafer scale in a massively parallel way. In this paper we review some of the recent developments in the integration of non-native optical functions on Si photonic platforms using micro-transfer printing.