Rachele Favaretto

Thermo-optic phase shifters are key building blocks in Silicon and Silicon Nitride-based reconfigurable photonic integrated circuits. They enable manipulating the phase of an optical signal by means of electrically-driven heating of an optical waveguide. Conventional fabrication schemes typically require dedicated lithographic steps to separately define the resistive heaters, the current transmission lines, and the electrical contact pads. This increases the process complexity and slows the standard complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) fabrication flows. In this work, we present a single-step metallization-level lithographic process for the simultaneous realization of Titanium Nitride thermo-optic phase shifters and Aluminum interconnects integrated on a Silicon Nitride photonic platform. A detailed electro-optical characterization, performed on two platforms operating at 810 nm and 1550 nm, revealed π -shift powers of 92 ± 2 mW and 120 ± 10 mW, respectively. Alongside, modulation bandwidths of 8.5 ± 0.3 kHz and 3.83 ± 0.03 kHz were extracted from combined frequency- and time-domain analyses. Our results demonstrate that the proposed single-step lithographic metal definition process represents a robust, viable and cost-efficient route towards CMOS-compatible reconfigurable Silicon Nitride photonics.

Resonant label-free biosensors using silicon-on-insulator substrates represent a cutting-edge domain in optical sensing. These devices leverage the high refractive index contrast of silicon-on-insulator materials to create highly sensitive, compact sensors. They are crucial for real-time, precise biomolecular detection in healthcare diagnostics, environmental monitoring, and drug discovery, marking a significant stride in microphotonic technology and its practical applications. Different ring-based resonant configurations have been explored in this context, but a definitive comparative assessment of them was previously lacking in the literature. In our work, we experimentally compare four different ring configurations in terms of figure-of-merit, showing that the slotted ring performs better than competitive approaches. A silicon photonic chip including tens of ring resonators was fabricated and optically characterized considering air and aqueous solutions as cladding. The best sensitivity achieved was 64nm/RIU for the slotted ring configuration. The ring displayed a Q-factor in the order of 2.57 × 10 ⁴ , and the best estimated resolution was in the order of 10 ^–4 RIU in water. The measured figure-of-merit was grater than 200RIU ^–1 .

Liquid biopsy is expected to become widespread in the coming years thanks to point of care devices, which can include label-free biosensors. The surface functionalization of biosensors is a crucial aspect that influences their overall performance, resulting in the accurate, sensitive, and specific detection of target molecules. Here, the surface of a microring resonator (MRR)-based biosensor was functionalized for the detection of protein biomarkers. Among the several existing functionalization methods, a strategy based on aptamers and mercaptosilanes was selected as the most highly performing approach. All steps of the functionalization protocol were carefully characterized and optimized to obtain a suitable protocol to be transferred to the final biosensor. The functionalization protocol comprised a preliminary plasma treatment aimed at cleaning and activating the surface for the subsequent silanization step. Different plasma treatments as well as different silanes were tested in order to covalently bind aptamers specific to different biomarker targets, i.e., C-reactive protein, SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, and thrombin. Argon plasma and 1% v/v mercaptosilane were found as the most suitable for obtaining a homogeneous layer apt to aptamer conjugation. The aptamer concentration and time for immobilization were optimized, resulting in 1 µM and 3 h, respectively. A final passivation step based on mercaptohexanol was also implemented. The functionalization protocol was then evaluated for the detection of thrombin with a photonic biosensor based on microring resonators. The preliminary results identified the successful recognition of the correct target as well as some limitations of the developed protocol in real measurement conditions.