Photonic Probe Station

The length scale over which light is used for communication in information processing systems has steadily reduced. Silicon photonics is now crucial down to the chip scale, with major semiconductor companies such as Intel, Nvidia, and HP incorporating photonic transceiver chips with processors at the package level. To maximize the impact of silicon photonics for the semiconductor ecosystem, several measurement needs must be urgently addressed. Within this CHIPS effort, our team will focus on two thrusts that have been identified as key priorities by the integrated photonics industry: the development of specific test structure designs and a general design methodology that enable optimized measurements for extraction of device and material optical properties, and the measurement and mitigation of optical loss caused by induced surface roughness in photonic structures.