ISBN 978-3-8439-5796-0

978-3-8439-5796-0, Reihe Mikrosystemtechnik

Nadeem Alhareeb
Advancements in Fabrication Processes of Silicon Thermo-Optic Phase Shifters for Optofluidics

202 Seiten, Dissertation Technische Universität Hamburg (2026), Softcover, A5

Zusammenfassung / Abstract

Silicon-based optofluidics is one of the most promising applications that uses silicon photonics technology to introduce a powerful tool for sensing. The tuning of optofluidics is an essential feature in the success of integrated sensing devices. To control the photonic system properties and to compensate for fabrication errors in a wide range of applications, such as lab-on-a-chip technology. Among various approaches, thermo-optic tuning by integrating micro-heaters is widely used for this purpose due to its lossless nature and compatibility with CMOS technology, allowing scaling up to large volumes at moderate fabrication costs.

However, this method can suffer from high power consumption, in the range of 20 to 100 mW per free spectral range, which demands further optimization of integrated micro-heaters on wafer scale. Hence, a simple, low-cost, and efficient solution is still required to reduce power consumption. This work is devoted to addressing these challenges by using glass as an alternative substrate material for silicon. The low thermal conductivity of glass compared to silicon results in a reduction of the heater power consumption by reducing the heat leakage.

Hence, this work lays the foundation for novel optofluidic sensors based on deposited silicon photonic waveguides on glass substrates and analysis the integration possibilities with high efficiency micro-heaters for the control of novel sensor and lab-on-chip platforms using this new material combination.