Silica-on-silicon technology for photonic integrated devices

Silica-on-silicon and silicon-based integrated devices are key components for future all-optical communication networks. New challenging trends in photonic integration are towards PLCs (planar lightwave circuits), based on silicon platforms for monolithic integration of passive dielectric components with semiconductor active photonic devices and electronic circuits. A novel low temperature plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) technology for silica-based channel waveguides and waveguide devices is presented. Devices based on silica-on-silicon waveguide technology with imprinted Bragg gratings find increasing applications in wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) optical communication systems, as wavelength-selective devices, and in optical sensing, including biosensors and bioanalytical micro-techniques. The presented technologies have been applied for the fabrication of some test and new concept devices for optical communication systems. A brief review of these devices is given.