Hybrid integration of polymers and semiconductors for photonic integrated circuits

We combine polymers and semiconductors for application to high-performance photonic integrated circuits (PICs). We apply well-established semiconductor processing techniques to fabricate structures such as waveguides, gratings, pn junctions, and quantum wells. Then we use polymers to bond these samples to transfer substrates. Finally we etch away the growth substrate. With further processing we integrate the semiconductor circuit in the remaining epilayer with polymer waveguides. The end product is a photonic chip containing semiconductor only in the regions where there is an optical wave. The rest is made out of low-loss low-cost polymers containing low-loss optical guides which are almost identical to optical fibers. This technology is applied to high speed traveling wave modulators and tunable grating reflectors.