Superconductive nanowire single photon detector integrated onto photonic integrated chips

This technology is a flip-chip bonding fabrication technique for superconducting nanowire single photon detector (SNSPD) waveguide integration onto photonic integrated chips (PICs) providing high efficiency, multichannel, on-chip infrared single photon detection.

Unmet Need: Photonic integrated chip single photon detection

Current techniques for detecting single photons can include utilizing PICs. A central goal is to integrate single-photon detectors to reduce optical losses, latency and wiring complexity associated with off-chip detectors. While PICs have the potential for providing compact, efficient architecture for classical and quantum information processing systems, there are several limitations with current methods. These limitations include an inability to measure single photons while measuring low light levels. Therefore, there remains a substantial need for methods for improved single photon detection.

The Technology: Flip-chip bonding technique for integrating superconducting nanowire single photon detectors onto photonic integrated chips

This technology is a method for integrating superconducting nanowire SNSPD waveguides onto PICs for efficient single photon detection. The fabrication technique utilizes a micrometer-scale flip-chip process developed to overcome the yield problem by separating the PIC and the SNSPD fabrication processes. Using this method, scalable integration of low-jitter SNSPDs with silicon and aluminum nitride waveguides is achieved. This technology is compatible with a wide range of PICs and other substrates, including complementary metal oxide semiconductor-compatible silicon photonic platforms. As a result, this streamlined integration enables fully integrated photonic processors for quantum information science.

This technology has been validated and demonstrated on-chip correlation measurements of non-classical light.

Applications:

• Classical information processing systems
• Quantum information processing systems
• Single photon detection for quantum key distribution schemes
• Quantum communication and computation systems
• Optical interconnects in supercomputers
• Quantum simulation
• Quantum cryptography
• Quantum repeater networks
• Distributed quantum computing
• Quantum sensors for precision measurements of time, fields, and forces

Advantages:

• Reduction in device footprint
• Eliminates the need for extreme surface smoothness across an entire wafer
• Separate etching of superconducting films and waveguides for ensured quality
• Single photon measurement resolution
• High efficiency
• Multichannel

Lead Inventor:

Dirk Englund, Ph.D.

Patent Information:

Patent Status

Related Publications:

• Zhu D, Zhao QY, Choi H, Lu TJ, Dane AE, Englund D, Berggrem KK. “A scalable multi-photon coincidence detector based on superconducting nanowires” Nat Nanotechnol. 2018 Jul; 13(7): 596-601.

• Najafi F, Mower J, Harris NC, Bellei F, Dane A, Lee C, Hu X, Kharel P, Marsili F, Assefa S, Berggren KK, Englund D. “On-chip detection of non-classical light by scalable integration of single-photon detectors” Nat Commun. 2015 Jan; 6:5873.

Tech Ventures Reference:

• IR CU12144

• Licensing Contact: Greg Maskel