Integrated thin film photodetectors with vertically coupled microring

resonators for chip scale spectral analysis

Sang-Yeon Cho and Nan Marie Jokerst

Citation: Appl. Phys. Lett. 90, 101105 (2007); doi: 10.1063/1.2711524
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.2711524
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Integrated thin lm photodetectors with vertically coupled microring
resonators for chip scale spectral analysis
Sang-Yeon Cho
a
and Nan Marie Jokerst
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Duke University, 129 Hudson Hall, Durham, North
Carolina 27708
Received 12 January 2007; accepted 31 January 2007; published online 5 March 2007
An integrated spectral analysis system using a thin lm InGaAs metal-semiconductor-metal
photodetector integrated with a vertically coupled polymer microring resonator was demonstrated
for chip scale implementation. The integrated spectral analysis system has an excellent selectivity in
measured spectral response as well as low dark current 3.2 nA. The measured full width half
maximum of the spectral photoresponse at 5 V was 0.5 nm. 2007 American Institute of Physics.
DOI: 10.1063/1.2711524
Integrated spectral analysis systems have a number of
applications, including photonic sensing, communications,
and spectroscopy, since these detection systems can provide
light intensity information as well as spectral information.
Integrated spectral analysis systems can be implemented in a
number of ways, including utilizing wavelength selective
photodetectors PDs such as quantum-conned Stark effect
in multiple quantum wells MQWs,
1,2
integrating wave-
length selective optical passive devices such as asymmetric
waveguide couplers, optical lters, and arrayed waveguide
gratings AWGs with wavelength nonselective PDs,
35
and
using vertical cavity wavelength selective photodetectors.
6
The wavelength selective photodetector using the quantum
conned Stark effect in a MQW is simple to fabricate in a
compact format, but the strong temperature and strain depen-
dences of the absorption spectrum are the practical issue.
7
Vertical cavity PDs can be implemented in a highly inte-
grated format; however, these devices are most useful for
surface normal incident beam applications, not for planar
integrated waveguide applications. Finally, the AWG
approach
5
has been demonstrated in an all-InP system, which
is prohibitively costly. Thus, wavelength selective photode-
tection systems that can be integrated into a compact and
integrated waveguide format using simple, low cost wave-
guide materials and simple PD structures are interesting for
practical integrated system applications.
Microring resonators offer highly selective wavelength
output due to their high quality Q factor and have been
used in many applications including lasers,
8
photonic lters,
9
photonic sensors,
10,11
and wavelength selective
reectors/switches.
12,13
Microring resonators can be either
laterally coupled or vertically coupled. Vertically coupled
microring resonators VCMRs can be fabricated by conven-
tional ultraviolet UV lithography, in contrast to laterally
coupled microring resonators, which are typically fabricated
using advanced lithography, such as electron beam lithogra-
phy, due to the narrow gap between the microring and
waveguides typically submicron for near infrared applica-
tions to ensure enough coupling efciency to support reso-
nant characteristics in the coupling section. In VCMRs, op-
tical waveguides and microrings are stacked with an
interlayer for input/output beam coupling. The interlayer be-
tween the microring and the input/output waveguide serves
as a cladding layer in VCMRs, and the coupling efciency
between the waveguide and the microring can be easily ad-
justed by controlling the thickness of the interlayer.
The integration of vertically coupled polymer microring
resonators with conventional, wavelength nonselective PDs
offers the prospect of manufacturable integrated spectral
analysis systems in a planar format that can be integrated
with other planar photonic devices at the chip scale. In this
letter, an integrated spectral analysis system is demonstrated
by integrating a wavelength nonselective thin lm InGaAs
metal-semiconductor-metal MSM PD with a vertically
coupled polymer microring resonator on a silicon substrate.
The vertically coupled high Q microring resonators were
codesigned, fabricated, and cointegrated with the InGaAs
MSM PD. Compared to the previous approaches,
16
this ap-
proach can provide superior wavelength selectivity with high
Q microring resonators and excellent versatility in system
implementations through the use of spin-coated polymers
and heterogeneously integrated PDs.
An integrated spectral analysis system has been imple-
mented in this letter by integrating a thin lm InGaAs MSM
PD in the output of a polymer VCMR. Thin lm InGaAs
MSM PDs are fabricated separately and integrated with poly-
mer VCMR using a heterogeneous integration process.
14
A
MSM PD is fabricated by depositing interdigitated Schottky
contacts 30 nm Ti / 40 nm Pt / 190 nm Au on an InP-based
material structure with a top Schottky enhancement layer.
The grown material structure of the MSM PD is as follows:
40 nm thick InAlAs Schottky enhancement layer /20 nm
thick InGaAlAs grade layer /100 nm InGaAs absorption
layer /900 nm InAlAs supporting layer /200 nm InGaAs
etch stop layer on InP growth substrate. The fabricated
MSM PDs were mesa etched separated by selective wet
etching. After removing the growth substrate InP by selec-
tive wet etching, MSM PDs were transferred and integrated
onto contact pads on the SiO
2
/ Si substrate using a Mylar
transfer diaphragm.
14
The nal thickness of the thin lm PDs
as 1.26 m.
A polymer VCMR was fabricated by multiple polymer
spin coatings on the same SiO
2
/ Si substrate SiO
2
thickness
of 3 m. A SU8 polymer microring was fabricated using
conventional UV photolithography. The inner and outer radii
of the fabricated microring were 150 and 154 m, respec-
a
Electronic mail: sycho@duke.edu
APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 90, 101105 2007
0003-6951/2007/9010/101105/3/$23.00 2007 American Institute of Physics 90, 101105-1
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tively. Then, a 0.3 m thick polymethyl methacrylate
PMMA layer was coated on top of the fabricated microring
to create the vertically coupled structure. Metal contact pads
Ti / Au for the thin lm MSM PD were fabricated on top of
the PMMA layer at a location where the output waveguide
will be fabricated. A thin lm MSM PD was transferred onto
these contact pads and cured at 150 C for strong bonding.
Another SU8 layer was then coated and access waveguides
were patterned using UV photolithography. The access SU8
waveguides were aligned with the microring and with the
integrated thin lm MSM PD bonded to the contact pads.
Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the VCMR integrated
with a MSM PD. The inset in Fig. 1 is a photograph of the
fabricated VCMR.
The fabricated integrated spectral analysis system was
experimentally characterized. To demonstrate spectral analy-
sis capability, the photoresponse of the fabricated MSM PD
was measured by scanning the input wavelength with a tun-
able laser. An in-line ber polarizer was used to select a
linearly polarized component from the tunable laser. The
photoresponse from the integrated thin lm MSM PD was
measured using a source measurement unit. Figure 2 shows
two graphs: 1 the calculated throughput power of the fab-
ricated microring resonator solid line and 2 the measured
spectral photoresponse of the integrated MSM PD circles.
The applied bias voltage for the integrated thin lm MSM
PD was 5 V. The theoretical normalized throughput power
T, T=e
j
/ 1e
j

2
, of the VCMR in Fig. 1 is
calculated, where is the eld transmission coefcient at the
vertical coupling section the eld amplitude of the guided
beam in the waveguide after the vertical coupling section for
normalized input, is the loss factor for the microring
=1, lossless cavity, and is the buildup phase shift per
roundtrip of the circulating beam in the microring. In this
calculation, the dispersion characteristics of the buildup
phase shift for the fundamental mode in the microring were
included using the conformal mapping method.
15
As shown
in Fig. 2, the measured spectral photoresponse of the imple-
mented spectral analysis system is in good agreement with
the calculated throughput power of the fabricated microring
resonator.
From the measured photoresponse of the fabricated
wavelength selective photodetection system, the measured
full width half maximum FWHM around the resonant
wavelength of 1546.6 nm was 0.5 nm, which is an excellent
wavelength selectivity. This is compared to, for example, a
wavelength selective photodetector using a tapered vertical
cavity approach, which resulted in a FWHM of 0.8 nm.
6
The
calculated coupling efciency between the waveguide and
the embedded thin lm PD for the fabricated structure using
a commercial two-dimensional bidirectional beam propaga-
tion solver BEAMPROP from Rsoft Inc. was 98%. The esti-
mated Q factor of the VCMR based on the measured spectral
photoresponse of the fabricated spectral analysis system
shown in Fig. 2 circles was 4549 with 37% of calculated
input coupling efciency between the excitation optical ber
mode eld diameter: 9.5 m and the fabricated SU8 wave-
guide 2 m thick and 4 m wide.
Figure 3 shows the measured dark current and photocur-
FIG. 1. Schematic diagram of the fabricated VCMR integrated with a thin
lm MSM PD inset: fabricated vertically coupled microring resonator.
FIG. 2. Calculated throughput power of the fabricated microring resonator
solid line and measured spectral photoresponse of the integrated MSM PD
circles.
FIG. 3. Measured dark current and photocurrent for two different input
wavelengths
1
=1551.3 nm and
2
=1550.6 nm as a function of bias volt-
age to the MSM PD.
101105-2 S.-Y. Cho and N. M. Jokerst Appl. Phys. Lett. 90, 101105 2007
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rent for two different input wavelengths
1
=1551.3 nm and

2
=1550.6 nm as a function of bias voltage to the MSM
PD. The measured current-voltage characteristics of this in-
tegrated spectral analysis system exhibit excellent selectivity
for these different spectral inputs. The difference between the
maximum photocurrent and the measured dark current was
23.4 dB. The measured dark current at 5 V was 3.2 nA for
the integrated MSM PD. These experimental results suggest
that the spectral response of wavelength nonselective PDs
InGaAs MSM PDs integrated with VCMRs can be engi-
neered and optimized for specic applications without sacri-
cing the spectral performance of the microring resonator.
In conclusion, an integrated spectral analysis system us-
ing a thin lm MSM PD integrated with a polymer VCMR
was demonstrated. The measured difference between the
maximum photocurrent and the dark current was 23.4 dB.
The measured FWHM of the output spectrum was 0.5 nm.
The demonstrated integrated spectral analysis system shows
excellent wavelength selectivity compared to other ap-
proaches and can be applied to various applications such as
highly integrated chip scale optical sensing systems and in-
tegrated optical signal processing systems.
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