André Delâge

Folded cavity SOI microring sensors for high sensitivity and real time measurement of biomolecular binding

We demonstrate folded waveguide ring resonators for biomolecular sensing. We show that extending the ring cavity length increases the resonator quality factor, and thereby enhances the sensor resolution and minimum level of detection, while at the same time relaxing the tolerance on the coupling conditions to provide stable and large resonance contrast. The folded spiral path geometry allows a 1.2 mm long ring waveguide to be enclosed in a 150 microm diameter sensor area. The spiral cavity resonator is used to monitor the streptavidin protein binding with a detection limit of approximately 3 pg/mm(2), or a total mass of approximately 5 fg. The real time measurements are used to analyze the kinetics of biotin-streptavidin binding.

Silicon photonic wire biosensor array for multiplexed real-time and label-free molecular detection

We demonstrate a silicon photonic wire waveguide biosensor array chip for the simultaneous monitoring of different molecular binding reactions. The chip is compatible with automated commercial spotting tools and contains a monolithically integrated microfluidic channel for sample delivery. Each array sensor element is a 1.8-mm-long spiral waveguide folded within a 130 microm diameter spot and is incorporated in a balanced Mach-Zehnder interferometer with a near temperature independent response. The sensors are arranged in a 400 microm spacing grid pattern and are addressed through cascaded 1x2 optical power splitters using light from a single input fiber. We demonstrate the real-time monitoring of antibody-antigen reactions using complementary and mismatched immunoglobulin G receptor-analyte pairs and bovine serum albumin. The measured level of detection for each sensor element corresponds to a surface coverage of less than 0.3 pg/mm(2).

Refractive index engineering with subwavelength gratings for efficient microphotonic couplers and planar waveguide multiplexers

We use subwavelength gratings (SWGs) to engineer the refractive index in microphotonic waveguides, including practical components such as input couplers and multiplexer circuits. This technique allows for direct control of the mode confinement by changing the refractive index of a waveguide core over a range as broad as 1.6-3.5 by lithographic patterning. We demonstrate two experimental examples of refractive index engineering, namely, a microphotonic fiber-chip coupler with a coupling loss as small as -0.9dB and minimal wavelength dependence and a planar waveguide multiplexer with SWG nanostructure, which acts as a slab waveguide for light diffracted by the grating, while at the same time acting as a lateral cladding for the strip waveguide. This yields an operation bandwidth of 170nm for a device size of only approximately 160microm x100microm.

A high-resolution silicon-on-insulator arrayed waveguide grating microspectrometer with sub-micrometer aperture waveguides.

We demonstrate a 50-channel high-resolution arrayed waveguide grating microspectrometer with a 0.2 nm channel spacing on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform. The chip size is 8 mm x 8 mm. High channel density and spectral resolution are achieved using high aspect ratio 0.6 mum x 1.5 mum waveguide apertures to inject the light into the input combiner and to intercept different spectral channels at the output combiner focal region. The measured crosstalk is <-10 dB, the 3 dB channel bandwidth is 0.15 nm, and the insertion loss is -17 dB near the central wavelength of lambda = 1.545 mum.

Subwavelength grating periodic structures in silicon-on-insulator: a new type of microphotonic waveguide

We report on the experimental demonstration and analysis of a new waveguide principle using subwavelength gratings. Unlike other periodic waveguides such as line-defects in a 2D photonic crystal lattice, a subwavelength grating waveguide confines the light as a conventional index-guided structure and does not exhibit optically resonant behaviour. Subwavelength grating waveguides in silicon-on-insulator are fabricated with a single etch step and allow for flexible control of the effective refractive index of the waveguide core simply by lithographic patterning. Experimental measurements indicate a propagation loss as low as 2.1 dB/cm for subwavelength grating waveguides with negligible polarization and wavelength dependent loss, which compares favourably to conventional microphotonic silicon waveguides. The measured group index is nearly constant n(g) ~1.5 over a wavelength range exceeding the telecom C-band.

Subwavelength grating crossings for silicon wire waveguides

We report on the design, simulation and experimental demonstration of a new type of waveguide crossing based on subwavelength gratings in silicon waveguides. We used 3D finite-difference time-domain simulations to minimize loss, crosstalk and polarization dependence. Measurement of fabricated devices show that our waveguide crossings have a loss as low as -0.023 dB/crossing, polarization dependent loss of < 0.02 dB and crosstalk <-40 dB.

Spiral-path high-sensitivity silicon photonic wire molecular sensor with temperature-independent response

We demonstrate a new silicon photonic wire waveguide evanescent field (PWEF) sensor that exploits the strong evanescent field of the transverse magnetic mode of this high-index-contrast, submicrometer-dimension waveguide. High sensitivity is achieved by using a 2 mm long double-spiral waveguide structure that fits within a compact circular area of 150 microm diameter, facilitating compatibility with commercial spotting apparatus and the fabrication of densely spaced sensor arrays. By incorporating the PWEF sensor element into a balanced waveguide Mach-Zehnder interferometer circuit, a minimum detectable mass of approximately 10 fg of streptavidin protein is demonstrated with near temperature-independent response.

High bandwidth SOI photonic wire ring resonators using MMI couplers

A ring resonator in SOI photonic wire waveguides is demonstrated using a compact MMI coupler with 3mum x 9 mum footprint as the coupling element. We achieved high bandwidth of 0.25 nm, and a quality factor Q of ~ 6000 for rings with a radius of 50 mum. Unlike directional coupler based rings, these resonators have a wavelength independent Q and extinction ratio over more than 30 nm wavelength range, and there is no loss penalty for increasing the bandwidth. Compared to their directional coupler based counterparts, these resonators also have less demanding fabrication requirements and are compatible with high speed signal processing and optical delay lines.

Label-free biosensor array based on silicon-on-insulator ring resonators addressed using a WDM approach

We report a silicon-on-insulator ring resonator biosensor array with one output port, using wavelength division multiplexing as the addressing scheme. With the use of on-chip referencing for environmental drift cancellation, simultaneous monitoring of multiplexed molecular bindings is demonstrated, with a resolution of 0.3 pg/mm(2) (40 ag of total mass) for protein concentrations over 4 orders of magnitude down to 20 pM. Reactions are measured over time periods as long as 3 h with high stability.

Eliminating the birefringence in silicon-on-insulator ridge waveguides by use of cladding stress

We propose and demonstrate the use of the cladding stress-induced photoelastic effect to eliminate modal birefringence in silicon-on-insulator (SOI) ridge waveguides. Birefringence-free operation was achieved for waveguides with otherwise large birefringence by use of properly chosen thickness and stress of the upper cladding layer. With the stress levels typically found in cladding materials such as SiO2, the birefringence modification range can be as large as 10(-3). In arrayed waveguide grating demultiplexers that were fabricated in a SOI platform, we demonstrated the reduction of the birefringence from 1.2 x 10(-3) (without the upper cladding) to 4.5 x 10(-5) when a 0.8-microm oxide upper cladding with a stress of -320 MPa (compressive) was used. Because the index changes induced by the stress are orders of magnitude smaller than the waveguide core-cladding index contrast, the associated mode mismatch loss is negligible.