Nanoscale Silicon-on-Insulator Photo-Activated Modulator Building Block for Optical Communication

The constantly growing use of real-time computing generates constant urge for much faster processors than those which are currently available in the market. Correspondingly, there is an accelerated development of new optics communication related applications and components. The effort to combine those two trends leads to the generation of new optoelectronic nanodevices. Such hybrid devices may allow high operation speed, reduced cross talk and other noises, low operation power, and obviate the need for the existing electro-optical convertors. In this letter, we present the design, simulation, fabrication, and characterization of an optoelectronic device based on silicon which is capable of speeding up the processing capabilities. This novel device is called silicon-on-insulator photo-activated modulator. The nature of the data flow in this device is electronic, while the modulation control command is optic. Since the external voltage in the final configuration design of the device is constant and no RC (electrical average response time) related delay is generated, faster operation rates are anticipated. This novel device can serve as a building block toward the development of optical data processing while breaking through the way to all optic processors based on silicon chips that are fabricated via typical microelectronics fabrication process.