Photonic Crystal Microcavities in a Microelectronics 45nm SOI CMOS Technology

Abstract: We demonstrate the first monolithically integrated linear photonic crystal microcavities in an advanced SOI CMOS microelectronics process (IBM 45nm 12SOI) with no in-foundry process modifications. The cavities were integrated into a standard microelectronics design flow meeting process design rules, and fabricated alongside transistors native to the process. We demonstrate both 1520nm wavelength and 1180nm cavity designs using different cavity implementations due to design rule constraints. For the 1520nm and 1180nm designs, loaded quality factors of 2,000 and 4,000 are measured, and intrinsic quality factors of 100,000 and 60,000 are extracted. We also demonstrate an evanescent coupling geometry which decouples the cavity and waveguide-coupling design.