Oxidised porous silicon waveguide technology for silicon optoelectronics

The work presented, that is a part of the ongoing European project OLSI no. 28934, overcomes problems by an OPSWG (oxidized porous silicon waveguide). In order to provide confinement and propagation of light within the waveguide (WG), the guiding region (core) has to have a higher refractive index than the surrounding cladding regions. Such construction of a WG can be provided by a variation of anodization regimes during the PS (porous silicon) formation. The technological process of the OPSWG fabrication consists of three main steps: (a) anodization of Si through the openings in a mask to form PS; (b) thermal oxidation of PS; (c) high temperature densification of OPS.