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.
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.
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.
Dirk Englund, Ph.D.
IR CU12144
Licensing Contact: Greg Maskel