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Veeco Instruments Inc. and imec announced that they have collaboratively developed a 300mm high-volume-manufacturing-compatible process that enables the integration of barium titanate (BaTiO3 or BTO) on a silicon photonics platform. BTO is a promising material with unique electro-optical properties that can be used for high-speed and low-power light modulation in emerging applications such as high-speed optical transceivers, quantum computing, light detection and ranging (lidar), and AR/VR applications. Historically, approaches to integrate BTO have struggled to meet the desired cost targets to make it viable for high-volume manufacturing. Veeco has now delivered its first molecular beam epitaxy (MBE)-based cluster system, marking a significant milestone in Veeco’s and imec’s partnership and their dedication to enhance silicon photonics platform capabilities. The new 300mm platform is designed for the epitaxy of BaTiO3 single crystalline thin films on silicon, available with both solid and hybrid molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) solutions. With the integration of these alternative growth techniques, the system will be capable of BTO-on-Si deposition with improved repeatability and at a lower cost than classical MBE methods.
The optical transceiver market for datacom is expected to grow to $13.1 billion in 2030, up from $2.9 billion in 2024. However, to alleviate the trade-offs of current silicon modulator technologies, including high power consumption, performance (speed, drive voltage), and area, the introduction of novel electro-optic materials, like BTO, into silicon photonics will be crucial. At present, there is no commercially available production-compatible solution for manufacturing these materials. In partnership with Veeco, imec is now addressing this industry need to develop scaled solutions that allow the integration of materials such as BaTiO3 and SrTiO3 onto a 300mm silicon platform.
“Over the past 4 years, imec and Veeco have collaborated on developing alternative techniques for BaTiO3-on-Si and benchmarking both material and electro-optic properties towards defining a strategy for advancing large-scale manufacturing solutions,” says Clement Merckling, scientific director at imec. “With the introduction of Veeco’s first-of-its-kind MBE solution, we are expanding our capabilities for heterogeneous integration of beyond-Si electro-optic materials, strengthening our R&D offering for current and new partners with an interest in exploring and prototyping next-generation silicon photonics technology.” added Joris Van Campenhout, imec fellow and optical I/O program director.
“This partnership with imec is a monumental step forward for the MBE industry, datacom and quantum computing production,” commented Matthew Marek, Senior Director of Marketing for Veeco’s MBE Product Line. “The historic view of MBE processing has been that it is slow and expensive; however, new hardware developments that our team validated in partnership with imec bring MBE into a cost-effective domain that is suitable for semiconductor fabs. We are excited about the work underway between our two organizations to demonstrate a repeatable, high-volume BTO production process. We anticipate this effort will help us achieve our shared goal to unlock BTO photonic modulator breakthroughs for a better and greener future.”
