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Title: Optical Coupler Design and Experimental Demonstration for 2.5D/3D Heterogeneous Integrated Electronics
Committee:
Dr. Muhannad Bakir, ECE, Chair , Advisor
Dr. Thomas Gaylord, ECE, Co-Advisor
Dr. Stephen Ralph, ECE
Dr. Benjamin Klein, ECE
Dr. Oliver Brand, ECE
Dr. Suresh Sitaraman, ME
Abstract:
The objective of the dissertation is to theoretically design and experimentally demonstrate optical couplers for 2.5D/3D heterogeneous integrated electronics. In the first part, a new concept, the "equivalent index slab (EIS)" method, is proposed to extend the application of the rigorous coupled-wave analysis (RCWA) to the rectangular grating diffraction phenomena involving surface waves. The RCWA-EIS method can be applied to optimize rectangular grating couplers with arbitrary profiles and to analyze the effects of angular misalignments on the coupling efficiency. In the second part, a fundamentally new coupling structure, the grating-assisted-cylindrical-resonant-cavities (GARC) interlayer coupler, is introduced. Based on cylindrical resonant cavities, the GARC couplers exhibit wider spectral bandwidth and higher coupling efficiency, which are promising alternatives to the conventional couplers. In the third part, a passive self-alignment and assembly approach for optical fibers is proposed and demonstrated using a combination of silicon micromachining and 3D printing to achieve efficient and accurate near-vertical coupling to a photonic chip.
