Locally Erasable Couplers for Optical Device Testing in Silicon on Insulator

Wafer scale testing is critical to reducing production costs and increasing production yield. Here we report a method that allows testing of individual optical components within a complex optical integrated circuit. The method is based on diffractive grating couplers, fabricated using lattice damage induced by ion implantation of germanium. These gratings can be erased via localised laser annealing, which is shown to reduce the outcoupling efficiency by over 20 dB after the device testing is completed. Laser annealing was achieved by employing a CW laser, operating at visible wavelengths thus reducing equipment costs and allowing annealing through thick oxide claddings. The process used also retains CMOS compatibility.