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We present photonics technology based on a bulk-Si substrate for cost-sensitive dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) optical interface application. We summarize the progress on passive and active photonic devices using a local-crystallized Si waveguide fabricated by solid phase epitaxy or laser-induced epitaxial growth on bulk-Si substrate. The process of integration of a photonic integrated circuit (IC) with an electronic IC is demonstrated using a 65 nm DRAM periphery process on 300 mm wafers to prove the possibility of seamless integration with various complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor devices. Using the bulk-Si photonic devices, we show the feasibility of high-speed multidrop interface: the Mach–Zehnder interferometer modulators and commercial photodetectors are used to demonstrate four-drop link operation at 10 Gb/s, and the transceiver chips with photonic die and electronic die work for the DDR3 DRAM interface at 1.6 Gb/s under a 1∶4 multidrop configuration.

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This study reports the evaluation of an optical waveguide fabricated on a bulk-Si platform by using an epitaxially grown Si layer. The epitaxial growth of Si is obtained by the solid phase epitaxy (SPE) using a hot furnace annealing method. It is observed that an optical propagation loss of the waveguide decreases with increasing the epitaxially grown area in the waveguide. In this study, an epitaxial growth rate is greatly enhanced by an (100) growth orientation due to the lower atomic close packing density along the (100) orientation. The optical propagation loss is also improved with the (100) growth orientation because of the higher crystalline quality and full epitaxial growth of Si.