Disclosure of Invention
The technical problem is as follows: the invention provides a silicon-based GaN photonic chip for blue light visible light communication and a preparation method thereof, wherein the silicon-based GaN photonic chip can improve the performance indexes of the blue light waveband visible light communication technology in various aspects such as information transmission rate, information processing speed, terminal device integration level and the like.
The technical scheme is as follows: the invention relates to a silicon-based GaN photonic chip facing blue light visible light communication, which takes a silicon substrate nitride wafer with a low refractive index cladding as a carrier and comprises a silicon substrate nitride crystal silicon substrate layer, a top nitride layer, a resonance ring arranged in the top nitride layer, a nanometer optical waveguide, a coupling grating, a splitter and a dual-function photoelectric device with the functions of emitting blue light optical signals and detecting blue light optical signals, wherein a plurality of dual-function photoelectric devices and a plurality of nanometer optical waveguides are correspondingly arranged around the resonance ring, two ends of a straight nanometer optical waveguide are respectively and correspondingly connected with one dual-function photoelectric device and are simultaneously connected with one corresponding coupling grating through one splitter, one end of the other nanometer optical waveguides is correspondingly arranged with the resonance ring, the other end of the other nanometer optical waveguide is correspondingly connected with one dual-function photoelectric device and is simultaneously connected with one corresponding coupling grating through one splitter, each bifunctional photoelectric device comprises a positive electrode, a negative electrode and a top nitride layer positioned between the positive electrode and the negative electrode, and is connected with one end of the nanometer optical waveguide in the horizontal direction. The top layer nitride layer comprises a P-type GaN layer, an active layer, a low refractive index cladding layer and an N-type GaN layer which are arranged from top to bottom, the resonant ring, the nano optical waveguide, the coupling grating and the shunt are etched to the N-type GaN layer from top to bottom, the anode and the cathode are arranged on the upper surface of the P-type GaN layer, and the cathode is arranged on the upper surface of the N-type GaN layer exposed after etching.
Furthermore, in the integrated chip of the invention, the positive electrode and the negative electrode are both nickel/gold electrodes.
Furthermore, in the integrated chip of the invention, the component of the low-refractive-index cladding layer is AlGaN, and the optical refractive index of the low-refractive-index cladding layer is lower than the optical refractive index of the P-type GaN layer, the active layer and the N-type GaN layer.
Furthermore, in the integrated chip, the low-refractive-index cladding layer limits the blue light optical signal in the top nitride layer for transmission and processing, so that the photonic integrated chip with strong photon limiting effect and good light propagation modulation characteristic is realized.
Furthermore, in the integrated chip, the nanometer optical waveguide and the splitter are used for transmitting and splitting the blue light optical signal; the resonant ring is used for adjusting the frequency characteristic of the blue light optical signal and realizing wavelength division multiplexing; the coupling grating is used for introducing the blue light optical signal into an external spectrometer for monitoring.
The integrated chip of the invention is characterized in that a top nitride layer is processed and arranged by a nano optical waveguide, a branching unit, a resonance ring and a coupling grating in the horizontal direction, and forms an LED blue light emitting device together with the top nitride and a nickel/gold electrode and a dual-function photoelectric device suitable for a blue light wave band in the horizontal direction through modes of electron beam lithography, optical lithography, three-five reactive ion etching and the like, so that the chip-level integration of receiving, transmitting and processing of blue light optical signals is formed.
The invention relates to a preparation method of a silicon-based GaN photonic chip for blue light visible light communication, which comprises the following steps:
performing electron beam lithography on the upper surface of the top layer nitride of the silicon substrate nitride wafer to define the graphic structures of the nanometer optical waveguide, the shunt, the resonant ring, the coupling grating and the dual-function photoelectric device, and depositing a chromium metal layer by adopting an electron beam evaporation technology;
stripping a chromium metal layer evaporated on the surface of the electron beam photoresist in an ultrasonic cleaning environment by using an organic reagent acetone to obtain the chromium metal layer with a graphic structure;
step (3) adopting a III-V material reactive ion etching technology, and etching the top layer nitride of the silicon substrate nitride wafer to an N-type GaN layer by using the chromium metal layer as a hard mask to obtain the structure of the nanometer optical waveguide, the branching unit, the resonance ring, the coupling grating and the dual-function photoelectric device;
performing optical photoetching on the upper surface of the top layer nitride of the silicon substrate nitride wafer, defining the graphic structure of a positive electrode and a negative electrode of the bifunctional photoelectric device, and depositing a nickel/gold composite metal layer by adopting an electron beam evaporation technology;
and (5) stripping the nickel/gold composite metal layer evaporated on the surface of the photoresist in an ultrasonic cleaning environment by using an organic reagent acetone to obtain the positive electrode and the negative electrode of the double-tapping photoelectric device.
Furthermore, in the preparation method, the silicon substrate nitride wafer comprises a silicon substrate layer and a top nitride layer, wherein the top nitride layer comprises a P-type GaN layer, an active layer, a low-refractive-index cladding layer and an N-type GaN layer which are arranged from top to bottom.
Further, in the preparation method of the present invention, the etching in step (3) is performed by: the method is characterized in that a high etching selection ratio of a chromium metal layer and a top nitride in the III-V group reactive ion etching process is utilized, the chromium metal layer is used as a hard mask, an etching depth of 2-5 microns is obtained on the top nitride, and the structures of the nanometer optical waveguide, the branching unit, the resonant ring, the coupling grating and the dual-function photoelectric device are etched to an N-type GaN layer.
As a third generation semiconductor, the gallium nitride material has excellent photoelectric properties. The GaN material has a forbidden bandwidth of 3.4eV, and can form a ternary or quaternary solid solution alloy system with InN (with a forbidden bandwidth of 1.9eV) AIN (with a forbidden bandwidth of 6.2eV), and the corresponding direct band gap wavelength can be used for manufacturing and developing blue photon chips. The invention provides a silicon-based GaN photonic chip for blue light visible light communication, which is beneficial to combining the excellent photoelectric characteristics of a silicon-based GaN material and an advanced micro-nano processing technology and improving the performance indexes of the blue light waveband visible light communication technology in various aspects such as information transmission rate, information processing speed, terminal device integration level and the like.
In the integrated chip, a top layer nitride and a nickel/gold electrode form an LED blue light emitting device and a dual-function photoelectric device suitable for a blue light waveband and are used for generating and receiving blue light optical signals, and a nanometer optical waveguide and a branching unit are used for transmitting and separating the blue light optical signals; the resonant ring is used for adjusting the frequency characteristic of the blue light optical signal and realizing wavelength division multiplexing; the coupling grating is used for introducing the blue light optical signal into an external spectrometer for monitoring. The invention has small volume and high integration, can be applied to the fields of photon calculation, visible light communication and the like, and improves the performance indexes of the blue light waveband visible light communication technology in various aspects such as information transmission rate, information processing speed, terminal device integration level and the like.
Has the advantages that: compared with the prior art, the invention has the following advantages:
the modulation bandwidth of a commercial white light LED light source commonly used in visible light communication at present is only a few megahertz, and the modulation bandwidth of a blue light LED light source with optimized performance can reach hundreds of megahertz at most. Meanwhile, as the signal processing module still depends on the electronic chip, further development of visible light communication is limited to a great extent, and the quantum size limitation and the power consumption problem of the electronic device also become bottlenecks in continuous development of the visible light communication field. The photonic chip can be used for main information processing devices of future ultra-high-speed communication and operation, and can greatly improve the data transmission and operation speed in the visible light communication technology.
However, most of the existing photonic chips are based on photonic chip passive optical signal processing devices with an SOI substrate facing 1.55 μm communication optical band, although they have basic optical signal processing capability, the SOI substrate is used as a passive substrate, optical signals need to be generated by an external light source and coupled into the photonic chip through an optical fiber system, and the conversion of optical signals into electrical signals also needs an external photoelectric sensor for processing, which greatly increases the volume and cost of the whole optical communication system. Meanwhile, due to the limitation of the forbidden bandwidth of the silicon-based material, the band of the optical signal which can be processed by the silicon-based material is limited above the infrared band, so that the visible optical signal with smaller wavelength and larger signal bandwidth can not be processed.
The invention utilizes a silicon substrate nitride wafer with a low-refractive-index cladding layer to synchronously prepare a blue light LED device serving as a visible light signal light source, a difunctional photoelectric device for converting a visible light signal into an electric signal, a nanometer optical waveguide for transmitting and processing the visible light signal, a splitter, a resonant ring and a coupling grating in a high-integration mode in a top layer nitride. The nanometer optical waveguide and the splitter are used for transmitting and splitting blue light optical signals; the resonant ring is used for adjusting the frequency characteristic of the blue light optical signal and realizing wavelength division multiplexing; the coupling grating is used for introducing the blue light optical signal into an external spectrometer for monitoring. Meanwhile, the low-refractive-index cladding layer can limit visible light signals in the top-layer nitride for processing and transmission, and the blue-light active photonic integrated chip with a strong photon limiting effect and good light propagation modulation characteristics is realized. Exciting a blue light optical signal with high bandwidth and high response speed by using an LED device; the blue light optical signal is transmitted in the nanometer optical waveguide, the optical characteristics such as the spectrum, the frequency response characteristic and the transmission form of the blue light optical signal are regulated and controlled by utilizing passive photonic devices such as a micro-ring resonator, a splitter and the like, the blue light optical signal is introduced into an external spectrometer by utilizing a coupling grating for monitoring, and finally the blue light optical signal is converted into an electric signal through a monolithic integrated photoelectric sensor, so that a high-performance active photonic integrated chip for visible light communication towards a blue light waveband under the wavelength division multiplexing technology is obtained. The method can be applied to the fields of photon calculation, visible light communication and the like, and can improve the performance indexes of the blue light waveband visible light communication technology in various aspects such as information transmission rate, information processing speed, terminal device integration level and the like.
Detailed Description
The technical scheme of the invention is further explained in detail by combining the attached drawings:
as shown in fig. 1, the carrier of the silicon-based GaN-based photonic chip facing blue light and visible light communication of the present invention is a silicon-substrate nitride wafer, which includes a top layer nitride with a low-refractive-index cladding layer and a silicon substrate layer located below the top layer nitride. A low-refractive-index cladding layer is arranged below the active layer of the top nitride of the silicon substrate nitride wafer, and an N-type GaN layer is arranged below the low-refractive-index cladding layer; the top layer nitride of the silicon substrate nitride wafer is internally provided with an active photonic device, an LED blue light emitting device and a bifunctional photoelectric device, wherein the active photonic device is used for generating and receiving blue light optical signals; the top layer nitride of the silicon substrate nitride wafer is internally provided with a passive photonic device, a nanometer optical waveguide, a splitter, a resonant ring, a coupling grating and the like for transmitting and processing a blue light optical signal.
The invention uses the chromium metal layer as a hard mask, etches the chromium metal layer to the N-type GaN layer through III-V group reactive ions, processes and arranges the active and passive photonic devices in the low-refractive-index cladding and the active layer, and uses the low-refractive-index cladding to limit the blue light optical signal in the active layer for transmission and processing. In the III-V group reactive ion etching process, the high etching selection ratio of the chromium metal layer and the top nitride is utilized, the chromium metal layer is used as a hard mask, etching is carried out for 20 minutes at the etching speed of 100 nanometers per minute, the etching depth of 2 micrometers is obtained on the top nitride, and the etching is carried out until the N-type GaN layer is obtained. As described in claim 8, using high etching selectivity of the chromium metal layer and the top nitride during the iii-v reactive ion etching, the chromium metal layer is used as a hard mask, and etching is performed for 35 minutes at an etching rate of 100 nm/min to obtain an etching depth of 3.5 μm on the top nitride, and the etching is performed to the N-type GaN layer. As described in claim 8, utilizing the high etching selectivity of the chromium metal layer and the top nitride during the iii-v reactive ion etching, the chromium metal layer is used as a hard mask, and etching is performed for 50 minutes at an etching rate of 100 nm/min to obtain an etching depth of 5 μm on the top nitride, and the etching is performed to the N-type GaN layer. In a specific application scene, an LED device is utilized to excite a blue light optical signal with high bandwidth and high response speed; blue light optical signals are transmitted in the nanometer optical waveguide, passive photonic devices such as a micro-ring resonator and an optical splitter are used for regulating and controlling optical characteristics such as spectrum, frequency response characteristics and transmission forms of the blue light optical signals, coupling gratings are used for introducing the blue light optical signals into an external spectrometer for monitoring, finally, the blue light optical signals are converted into electric signals through a monolithic integrated photoelectric sensor, and a high-performance active photonic integrated chip for visible light communication towards a blue light waveband under the wavelength division multiplexing technology is obtained.
As an optimized structure of the invention: the blue light optical signal transmitting end of the silicon-based GaN photonic chip facing the blue light visible light communication is an LED device, the blue light optical signal is transmitted in the nanometer optical waveguide, passive photonic devices such as a micro-ring resonator and a splitter are used for regulating and controlling optical characteristics such as spectrum, frequency response characteristics and transmission form of the blue light optical signal, the blue light optical signal is introduced into an external spectrometer by a coupling grating for monitoring, and finally the blue light optical signal is converted into an electric signal through a monolithic integrated photoelectric sensor to obtain a high-performance active photonic integrated chip facing the blue light waveband visible light communication under the wavelength division multiplexing technology. By means of processing means such as electron beam lithography, metal chromium hard masks, III-V etching technology and the like, the top nitride layer and the top nitride and nickel/gold electrodes form an LED blue light emitting device through the processed nano optical waveguide, the shunt, the resonant ring and the coupling grating and are connected with the dual-function photoelectric device suitable for a blue light wave band in the horizontal direction, and chip-level integration of receiving, transmitting and processing blue light optical signals is achieved.
The invention designs a silicon-based GaN photonic chip for blue light visible light communication, which has the application range, for example:
the high-bandwidth high-response-speed characteristic of a blue light optical signal generated by an LED device is utilized, the high-bandwidth high-response-speed characteristic can be used for integrated application of signal generation acquisition and processing in photon calculation, extremely high operation frequency is realized, energy consumption is very low, and a complex heat dissipation device is not needed. Meanwhile, the method can be applied to the field of high-speed visible light communication to perform monolithic integration on the transmitting, receiving, transmitting and processing processes of visible light signals, and can improve the performance indexes of the blue light waveband visible light communication technology in various aspects such as information transmission rate, information processing speed, terminal device integration level and the like.
The invention also designs a preparation method of the silicon-based GaN photonic chip for blue light visible light communication, which comprises the following specific steps:
performing electron beam lithography on the upper surface of the top layer nitride of the silicon substrate nitride wafer to define the graphic structures of the nanometer optical waveguide, the shunt, the resonant ring, the coupling grating, the LED blue light emitting device and the dual-function photoelectric device, and depositing a chromium metal layer by adopting an electron beam evaporation technology;
stripping in an ultrasonic cleaning environment by using an organic reagent acetone to obtain a chromium metal layer with a graphic structure, which is used as a hard mask when a nanometer optical waveguide, a branching unit, a resonance ring, a coupling grating, an LED blue light emitting device and a dual-function photoelectric device structure are etched in the top layer nitride of a silicon substrate nitride wafer;
step (3) etching the top nitride of the silicon substrate nitride wafer to an N-type GaN layer by adopting a III-V material reactive ion etching technology and using a chromium metal layer as a hard mask;
performing optical photoetching on the upper surface of the top layer nitride of the silicon substrate nitride wafer, defining the pattern structures of positive and negative electrodes of an LED blue light emitting device and a bifunctional photoelectric device, and depositing a nickel/gold composite metal layer by adopting an electron beam evaporation technology;
and (5) stripping the organic reagent acetone in an ultrasonic cleaning environment to obtain the positive and negative electrodes of the LED blue light emitting device and the bifunctional photoelectric device.
The above examples are only preferred embodiments of the present invention, it should be noted that: it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and equivalents can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention, and it is intended that all such modifications and equivalents fall within the scope of the invention as defined in the claims.