Younghyun Kim

Abstract As bandwidth demand continues to grow in chip-to-chip interconnects, silicon photonic optical modulators responsible for I/O require faster, more efficient, and more compact. Mach–Zehnder modulators utilizing the slow light effect achieve both higher modulation efficiency and miniaturization compared to conventional designs by reducing light propagation speed and effectively shortening the phase-shifter length.

In this Letter, we propose a stitching-loss-tolerant silicon nitride (SiN) waveguide structure that alleviates optical loss caused by reticle stitching, which inevitably arises in i-line stepper lithography suitable for low-cost, large-area fabrication. At a wavelength of 1310 nm, the measured stitching loss of straight waveguides is 0.105 dB/interface.

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