Uniting a III‐Nitride Transmitter, Waveguide, Modulator, and Receiver on a Single Chip.

The integration of III‐nitride electronics and photonics is of great interest toward future computing systems with low power consumption. Multifunctioning multiple quantum well (MQW) diodes can address the challenging issue for on‐chip integration of a light source, which is a key component to drive the photonic circuits. Herein, a transmitter, waveguide, modulator, and receiver are monolithically integrated on a III‐nitride‐on‐silicon platform to perform light emission, transmission, modulation, and detection simultaneously. Both the receiver and modulator exhibit sufficient sensitivity to optical signals from the transmitter, which has an identical InGaN/AlGaN multiple quantum well (MQW) structure because the III‐nitride diode provides spectral overlap between the emission and absorption spectra. On‐chip data communication among these optical components is achieved using light, and the effective wavelength range is from 365 to 385 nm, in which multifunctional devices can be operated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]