Lecture of the IEEE Photonics Society

Speaker: Dr. Valery Tolstikhin, OneChip Photonics, Ottawa

Date & Time: Friday, October 29, 2010 at 11 a.m.

Location: McLennan Physical Labs, Room MP203 University of Toronto, 60 St. George Street

All are welcome — refreshments will be served.

Abstract:
Photonic integration in indium phosphide (InP) is an extremely attractive option for manufacturing of multi-functional transmitter, receiver and transceiver components for optical communication over silica fibers. Also, it is a subject of an intensive research, and has been for the last 40 years. Still, the components operating in 1.3um-1.6um communication window deployed to date nearly universally are discrete rather than integrated InP components, whereas positive experience in commercialization of photonic integrated circuits (PICs) in InP remains very minimal, practically limited to one or two companies worldwide. Why is it so and what is a solution to this paradox?

These questions will be discussed in the first part of the presentation, in which an argument will be made that core issue is not with technology per se but rather with its inadequacy to economics of the markets it is supposed to serve. Hence, a solution has to be sought in adjusting the photonic integration technologies to the needs of the markets that more often than not require high manufacturability at low cost, in addition to or even ahead of a high performance. OneChip’s response to the challenge is its original photonic integration platform termed Multi-Guide Vertical Integration (MGVI), which allows for multi-functional transmitter, receiver or transceiver PICs in InP to be fabricated in one epitaxial growth step, by using only standard processing techniques and clean room equipment offered by generic commercial foundries. A description of MGVI platform and building blocks will be provided.

In the second part of the presentation, specific MGVI building blocks for on-chip generation, detection and manipulation of optical signals will be presented, as well as exemplary PICs based on them and fully packaged optical transceivers using these PICs.

Biography:
Valery Tolstikhin is a founder and CTO of OneChip Photonics Inc., a fabless developer and manufacturer of optical transceivers for access and interconnect networks, based on proprietary photonic integrated circuit (PIC) technology in indium phosphide (InP). Headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and funded by venture capital, this company now is at the leading edge of design and commercialization of the cost- efficient PICs for emerging markets of mass deployment.

Dr. Tolstikhin has been involved in the research and development of advanced semiconductor devices for micro- and optoelectronics for more than 30 years. An industry veteran with a solid academic background and international credentials acquired through his work in Canada, The Netherlands, Sweden and Russia, he has a long track of achievements as a researcher, innovator and R&D organizer. He has authored more than 80 research papers and 8 patents in the areas of semiconductor devices and photonics, and given numerous conference presentations in these areas. Dr. Tolstikhin earned his Ph.D. in radio physics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (1980) and D.Sc. in semiconductor physics from the Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1993). He is an adjunct professor at university of Ottawa.

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