Chroma Reliability Test Solutions for SiPh/PIC Manufacturing

As silicon photonics (SiPh) and photonic IC (PIC) technology continue to evolve, novel optoelectronic devices emerge to facilitate responding to higher bandwidth, lower power consumption and shorter latency performance request driven by high-speed data communication applications such as network switching and High Performance Computing. However, the novelty of all these sophisticated devices does not come naturally with the sufficient reliability to ensure surviving ever tougher operational environment, the seriousness of reliability issue even multiplies with massive deployment.

Unavoidable Screening Necessity

Among optoelectronic PIC components deployed in the field, those active devices such as laser diodes, optical modulators and photodiodes show especial inclination to vulnerability issues as a result of even severer stressed operation scenario. For the projected optics module packaging roadmap starting from conventional pluggable optics onward into the most state-of-the-art Co-Packaged Optics (CPO), the aggressive size shrinkage pace of PIC chiplets entails even soaring power density accumulated in the tiny locality, cultivating a highly stressed thermal environment for miniaturized PIC devices.

SiPh/PIC Active Devices Requesting for Reliability

Compound semiconductor based laser diodes are the typical light source used for PIC, the relatively immature manufacturing process (compared to Si process) disposes it to suffer from microcracks during facet cleaving. The subsequently formed Dard Line Defects sprawl along the crack plane till the whole piece of laser diode gets complete malfunction. Another massively deployed PIC active device is optical modulators. Phase devices such as micro-ring modulators are inherently sensitive to temperature variation and need heaters to compensate for the temperature shift induced by thermal agitation. Nowadays, adoption of heaters made of metallization process is considered more cost effective but at a price of metal exclusive reliability issue – electromigration, a metallic degrading phenomenon when current density scaling at MA/cm2 level. Photodiodes dispatched in PIC receiver subassembly are the other targeted active components for reliability test to lower the CAPEX and Cost-of-Ownership. High-speed Ge photodiodes have innate lattice mismatch interface between Ge deposition and Si substrate, introducing defects to contribute to dark current degradation.

Chroma Reliability Test Solutions for SiPh/PIC Manufacturing

Chroma ensures customer success by aiding in the development of innovative technology products while maintaining performance and quality standards. Chroma 58604/58606 series PIC Burn-in and Reliability Test System offers aging, reliability, and lifetime testing for a variety of photonic chip components such as laser diodes, photodiodes and optical modulators. The system boasts a testing capacity of up to 1,792 channels with 28 independent temperature control modules, each providing bi-polar voltage and current outputs and measurements across 64 SMU channels.