Co-design of high-speed silicon photonic electro-optic transmitter for optical I/O

Silicon Photonics (SiPho) is a fast-growing technology addressing many applications such as data communication, sensing, imaging. Especially for communication applications, silicon photonics is playing a key role in offering lower power consumption and higher speed at the same time with lower cost than traditional compound semiconductor photonics. As the importance of silicon photonics optical I/O increases, major industry players such as intel, Nvidia, TSMC, Samsung are also shipping silicon photonics products or striving to develop faster and energy-efficient products. As a world-renowned research center in this field, imec has in-house 200mm and 300mm CMOS pilot lines to process cutting-edge optical devices at wafer scale, including high-performance devices for light modulation, switching, coupling, filtering, and detection at data rates of 50GB/s and beyond.

This PhD research will focus on co-design of silicon photonic devices with electronic circuits to drive the photonic devices in the transmitter for optical I/O applications. As photonic device design platform and electronic circuit design platform are different in various manners, each design is optimized separately which makes room to optimize further in terms of speed and power consumption. Therefore, during the PhD, you will understand, design, characterize both silicon photonics devices as well as electronic circuits to optimize the whole transmitter circuit. In specific, 1) design of electronic driver circuits for 100GBaud NRZ/PAM4 using ultra high-speed modulators (e.g. GeSi EAM, LNO or SOH modulator) and 2) lower power driver design targeting 2x more efficient.

Expectation of workload

Literature study (10%), device modeling (10%), device/circuit design (simulation) (35%), layout (10%), device/circuit measurement (characterization) (35%)

What we do for you

We offer you the opportunity to join the world’s leading research center in nanotechnology in Gent or Leuven, Belgium. You will become part of a future team that makes the impossible possible. Together, we shape the technology that will define the society of tomorrow. We are committed to being an open multicultural and informal working environment.

Who you are

• You hold a MSc degree in the following fields: Photonics, Electrical and Electronics Engineering
• You have a strong interest in Photonics and a strong background in CMOS/BiCMOS RF electronics design
• Autonomy, scientific curiosity, and ability to work in an international environment
• Hands-on experience with electronics design software (e.g., Cadence/Synopsys).
• Hands-on experience with photonic design software (e.g. Lumerical/RSoft)
• Hands-on experience with RF measurement (e.g. PNA, LCA, eye-diagrams)
• Desirable programming and scripting skills. Experience with Python is a plus.