Silicon Nitride in Silicon Photonics

The silicon nitride (Si3N4) planar waveguide platform has enabled a broad class of low-loss planar-integrated devices and chip-scale solutions that benefit from transparency over a wide wavelength range (400-2350 nm) and fabrication using wafer-scale processes. As a complimentary platform to silicon-on-insulator (SOI) and III-V photonics, Si3N4 waveguide technology opens up a new generation of system-on-chip applications not achievable with the other platforms alone. The availability of low-loss waveguides (< 1 dB/m) that can handle high optical power can be engineered for linear and nonlinear optical functions, and that support a variety of passive and active building blocks opens new avenues for system-on-chip implementations. As signal bandwidth and data rates continue to increase, the optical circuit functions and complexity made possible with Si3N4 has expanded the practical application of optical signal processing functions that can reduce energy consumption, size and cost over today's digital electronic solutions. Researchers have been able to push the performance photonic-integrated components beyond other integrated platforms, including ultrahigh Q resonators, optical filters, highly coherent lasers, optical signal processing circuits, nonlinear optical devices, frequency comb generators, and biophotonic system-on-chip. This review paper covers the history of low-loss Si3N4 waveguide technology and a survey of worldwide research in a variety of device and applications as well as the status of Si3N4 foundries.