Integrated silicon ohotonic MEMS

Silicon photonics has emerged as a mature technology that is expected to play a key role in critical emerging applications,including very high data rate optical communications,distance sensing for autonomous vehicles,photonic-accelerated computing,and quantum information processing.The success of silicon photonics has been enabled by the unique combination of performance,high yield,and high-volume capacity that can only be achieved by standardizing manufacturing technology.Today,standardized silicon photonics technology platforms implemented by foundries provide access to optimized library components,including low-loss optical routing,fast modulation,continuous tuning,high-speed germanium photodiodes,and high-effciency optical and electrical interfaces.However,silicon's relatively weak electro-optic effects result in modulators with a significant footprint and thermo-optic tuning devices that require high power consumption,which are substantial impediments for very large-scale integration in silicon photonics.Microelectromechanical systems(MEMS)technology can enhance silicon photonics with building blocks that are compact,low-loss,broadband,fast and require very low power consumption.Here,we introduce a silicon photonic MEMS platform consisting of high-performance nano-opto-electromechanical devices fully integrated alongside standard silicon photonics foundry components,with wafer-level sealing for long-term reliability,flip-chip bonding to redistribution interposers,and fibre-array attachment for high port count optical and electrical interfacing.Our experimental demonstration of fundamental silicon photonic MEMS circuit elements,including power couplers,phase shifters and wavelength-division multiplexing devices using standardized technology lifts previous impediments to enable scaling to very large photonic integrated circuits for applications in telecommunications,neuromorphic computing,sensing,programmable photonics,and quantum computing.