Progress in silicon platforms for integrated optics

Rapid progress has been made in recent years repurposing CMOS fabrication tools to build complex photonic circuits. As the field of silicon photonics becomes more mature, foundry processes will be an essential piece of the ecosystem for eliminating process risk and allowing the community to focus on adding value through clever design. Multi-project wafer runs are a useful tool to promote further development by providing inexpensive, low-risk prototyping opportunities to academic and commercial researchers. Compared to dedicated silicon manufacturing runs, multi-project-wafer runs offer cost reductions of 100× or more. Through OpSIS, we have begun to offer validated device libraries that allow designers to focus on building systems rather than modifying device geometries. The EDA tools that will enable rapid design of such complex systems are under intense development. Progress is also being made in developing practical optical and electronic packaging solutions for the photonic chips, in ways that eliminate or sharply reduce development costs for the user community. This paper will provide a review of the recent developments in silicon photonic foundry offerings with a focus on OpSIS, a multi-project-wafer foundry service offering a silicon photonics platform, including a variety of passive components as well as high-speed modulators and photodetectors, through the Institute of Microelectronics in Singapore.