Russian scientists conducted a study of materials for the manufacture of promising photonic microcircuits. This was reported to socialbites.ca by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation.
The vast majority of modern electronic devices use microcircuits that can process an electrical signal. The logic of processors and the operation of many other devices, including sensors, are based on electrical signals and microcircuits. Many experts believe that photonic integrated circuits, in which light or infrared radiation are used instead of current, can compete with conventional microcircuits. Driving optical signals does not require silicon semiconductors, but requires a different type of component. Currently, scientists are actively engaged in the selection of materials suitable for this role and are investigating their properties, these fields of science are called photonics and radio photonics.
ETU “LETI” experts studied the properties of the components of photonic integrated circuits based on gallium arsenide and silicon nitride, the most promising materials for radio photonics. It turned out that there is less interference when transmitting signals using these semiconductors. In addition, the production technology can be applied for mass production.
“The materials of the photonic integrated circuits we examined are single-crystal semiconductors, epitaxial films, and nanoheterostructures based on them. The devices we developed can be placed on a chip with an area of 1 square mm or less. we need to study a wide range of properties and properties of the developed devices. Therefore, we use unique equipment to study such materials – a research station that allows us to conduct research directly on a crystal and provides signals directly to the waveguide structures of the topology, ”said Alexander Semenov, head of the science department. St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University “LETI”, to socialbites.ca.
The authors hope that their work will in the future make it possible to obtain waveguide structures with extremely low losses in both optical and microwave ranges, suitable for the fabrication of photonic integrated circuit components for various purposes, comparable in price and quality to silicon electronic circuits. According to experts, photonic circuits will work faster and with less interference.
Among other things, they can become the main effective lidars (“laser radars”) for unmanned vehicles, with which they orient themselves in space.