Tools for simulation of photonic components

For the design of photonic components, a broad range of commercial and in-house developed tools is available such as: waveguide mode solvers, beam propagation method (BPM) software, grating design, laser diode and optical amplifier modeling, modeling of micro-cavity LEDs and vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs), optical design, non-sequential ray tracing, thermal modeling and fiber optic system modeling.

CAMFR is an in-house developed flexible and efficient modeling tool. It is based on vectorial eigenmode expansion and advanced boundary conditions. Because it does not rely on spatial discretization, but uses a more 'intelligent' representation of the optical field, it can do orders of magnitude faster than more conventional methods (like e.g. finite difference time domain or FDTD).

CAMFR is being used to tackle the design of a wide variety of optical devices, such as photonic crystal devices, vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), resonant-cavity light-emitting diodes (LEDs), tapers, gratings, bends, etc. The model can also study non-linear effects, such as the Kerr effect and second harmonic generation. The software is freely available from http://camfr.sourceforge.net.

Silicon Photonics Platform

The Silicon Photonics Platform provides access to wafer-scale CMOS fabrication facilities for research and prototyping of photonic integrated circuits for academic and industrial R&D groups. The core partners of the network, IMEC and LETI, provide access to their 200mm silicon pilot lines and to their knowledge and experience with fabrication of photonic integrated circuits by means of wafer-scale processes. The Photonics Research Group, member of Plateau, coordinates the platform.

Through this service, roadmapping, promotion and exploration of commercial manufacturing routes, in the long term the platform wants to realize a route towards commercial deployment of silicon photonics.

Facilities

Plateau is home to a wide variety of specialized tools and machines for processing, handling and characterizing photonic materials, components and systems. Many of these tools are unavailable in commercial settings.

In keeping with our mission to foster innovation, Plateau helps businesses access these unique tools available in the respective labs.

Check our list of main tools for formulation, processing, coating, handling and synthesis and for monitoring, characterizing and screening. The lists are illustrative and not complete. Let us know your specific needs.

Tools for formulation, processing, coating, handling, synthesis 

(non-exclusive)

• Cleanroom - Plateau has extensive processing facilities in the Ghent university cleanroom. The building provides a total floor space of 2,200m2, 600m2 of which is effective cleanroom space. Research focuses on development of innovative technologies for advanced photonic devices such as wafer-bonding for membrane devices, nano-structuring through focused ion beam (FIB) and nano-imprint.The processing facilities include state-of-the-art equipment to fabricate compound semiconductor based photonic devices, e.g. ICP-RIE, and other materials (dielectrics, polymers, etc.) e.g. plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition, nanoimprint lithography for nanophotonics, die-to wafer bonding, etc.
• A FEI Nova Nanolab 600 Dual-beam Focused Ion Beam / Electron Beam writer: A dual-beam FIB including a high-resolution field-emission gun (FEG)-scanning electron microscopy (SEM) column and a FIB column. This tool includes advanced characterization tools electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), energy dispersive x-ray analysis (EDX) and an e-beam lithography attachment. This tool is used for micro-structuring materials at the sub- 100nm level.
• Laser ablation: 3-laser system (YAG, CO2, excimer (193-248 nm)) for ablation of a wide variety of materials: organic films, CU-films, microlenses, resists, ...
• Langmuir-Blodgett deposition system
• Colloidal quantum dot synthesis lab
• Rapid Thermal Processor (RTP) : Ar, N2, O2, H2, NH3, HCl.
• Atomic Layer Deposition vacuum chamber for metallization (ALD): thermal evaporation, D.C. and R.C. magnetron sputtering, e-gun evaporation, substrate heating
• ...

Tools for monitoring, characterization and screening

(non-exclusive)

• Scanning probe microscope (AFM/STM/MFM/EFM/C-AFM/heating stage)
• Spectrophotometer (175-3300 nm)
• Cs-corrected transmission electron microscope
• FEG-SEM environmental scanning electron microscope, including EDX, CL and EBSD
• EPR spectrometer (both X-band and Q-band)
• NMR spectrometer
• Photoluminescence decay measurements (time resolution ~ 10 ns)
• Ballistic Electron Emission Microscopy (BEEM), Surface/Interface Inc., also at low temperatures (77K).
• Current-Voltage-Temperature measurements (from -190 °C up to 130 °C)
• Impedance measurements, as a function of frequency (5 Hz up to 13 MHz) and temperature (-190°C to 130 °C)
• Electrochemical dopant profiler : Biorad
• Spectroscopic ellipsometry (270 - 1600 nm)
• Laser Doppler Vibrometer