Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year. (2017-2018 to 2018-2019)

Silicon photonics is rapidly gaining industry acceptance as a cost-effective technology for building opticalx000D
components for data communication networks. Silicon photonic waveguides are extremely compact, with ax000D
typical width of a few hundred nanometers, and they can be fabricated using conventional CMOSx000D
microelectronics process, which allows for low-cost manufacturing of optical components and large-scalex000D
integration with electronics on the same chip. This research aims to demonstrate the feasibility of integratingx000D
nanoscale electromechanical structures (NEMS) with silicon nanophotonic waveguides to perform importantx000D
data communication functions, such as switching and modulation. The technology could offer superiorx000D
performance over existing silicon photonic devices in terms of high speed and low power consumption.x000D
Compared to conventional micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), NEMS-based silicon photonic devicesx000D
are also much more compact, which allows for large-scale integration with photonic integrated circuits andx000D
CMOS microelectronics on the same chip.x000D
The collaborating industry partner is Preciseley Microtechnology Corp., an Edmonton-based provider ofx000D
MEMS products and services. With its extensive expertise in MEMS design and manufacturing, the companyx000D
is well-positioned to exploit the silicon photonic NEMS technology developed through this project andx000D
facilitate its transfer to the market. In addition to the commercial benefits to the industry partner, the project isx000D
also expected to benefit Canada through the development of home-grown expertise in silicon photonics andx000D
NEMS technologies, as well as the training of highly qualified personnel in the micro/nanotechnology andx000D
telecommunication sectors.