High performance thermal profiling of photonic integrated circuits

Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley MA

Investigators

Abstract

0321449 Hudgings Just as the dramatic success of ever more complex silicon integrated circuits has required the development of strategies for detailed on-chip testing and wafer-scale probing, future progress in complex photonic integrated circuits (PICs) will rely on the development of non-invasive techniques for wafer-scale optical profiling of integrated optoelectronics. This proposal is to develop thermoreflectance techniques that will allow us unprecedented access into the propagation of light within complex photonic circuits. The PI will develop a thermal profiling technique using thermoreflectance imaging in combination with a new total energy balance model for external heat exchange that will enable non-contact, three-dimensional thermal imaging with spatial resolution on the order of 100 nm, less than 1 ms temporal resolution, and temperature resolution of 1-100 mK. This is an order of magnitude better than commercial IR microscopes, and it is much faster than liquid crystal thermometry. This state of the art technique will enable the PI to achieve the following technological advances: 1) Noninvasive optical profiling of PICs, 2) Development of a novel technique for extracting carrier temperature distribution from lattice surface temperatures of optoelectronic devices, 3) Three-dimensional thermal imaging, and 4) Measurement of thermal transients inside working optoelectronic devices. This proposal will significantly enhance the infrastructure for research and education by creating a partnership between Mount Holyoke College, a top-20 undergraduate liberal arts college for women and MIT, one of the world's premier technical universities. Furthermore, the proposal integrates research with education at all levels of study: over the duration of the three year research plan, 6-8 undergraduate women students from Mount Holyoke will work on this project, in collaboration with a graduate student from MIT. Mt Holyoke places a particular premium on the integration of cutting-edge research into the education of the next generation of women scientists and engineers, so undergraduates will be heavily involved in all aspects the proposed research. Finally, because Mt Holyoke is a women's college with an unusually diverse student body, the proposed research comprises a remarkable opportunity to broaden the participation of underrepresented students in science.