Micro-transfer printing of O-band InAs/GaAs quantum-dot SOAs on silicon photonic integrated circuits

Abstract

Silicon photonics (SiPh) technology has become a key platform for developing photonic integrated circuits due to its CMOS compatibility and scalable manufacturing. However, integrating efficient on-chip optical sources and in-line amplifiers remains challenging due to silicon’s indirect bandgap. In this study, we developed prefabricated standardized InAs/GaAs quantum-dot (QD) active devices optimized for micro-transfer printing and successfully integrated them on SiPh integrated circuits. By transfer-printing standardized QD devices onto specific regions of the SiPh chip, we realized O-band semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs), distributed feedback (DFB) lasers, and widely tunable lasers (TLs). The SOAs reached an on-chip gain of 7.5 dB at 1299 nm and maintained stable performance across a wide input power range. The integrated DFB lasers achieved waveguide (WG)-coupled output powers of up to 19.7 mW, with a side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR) of 33.3 dB, and demonstrated notable robustness against optical feedback, supporting error-free data rates of 30 Gbps without additional isolators. Meanwhile, the TLs demonstrated a wavelength tuning range exceeding 35 nm, and a WG-coupled output power greater than 3 mW. The micro-transfer printing approach effectively decouples the fabrication of non-native devices from the SiPh process, allowing back-end integration of the III–V devices. Our approach offers a viable path toward fully integrated III–V/SiPh platforms capable of supporting high-speed, high-capacity communication.