Microheater hotspot engineering for spatially resolved and repeatable multi-level switching in foundry-processed phase change silicon photonics

Hongyi Sun, Chuanyu Lian, Francis Vásquez-Aza, Sadra Rahimi Kari, Yi-Siou Huang, Alessandro Restelli, Steven A. Vitale, Ichiro Takeuchi, Juejun Hu, Nathan Youngblood, Georges Pavlidis and Carlos A. Ríos Ocampo ()
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Hongyi Sun: University of Maryland
Chuanyu Lian: University of Maryland
Francis Vásquez-Aza: University of Connecticut
Sadra Rahimi Kari: The University of Pittsburgh
Yi-Siou Huang: University of Maryland
Alessandro Restelli: University of Maryland
Steven A. Vitale: MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Ichiro Takeuchi: University of Maryland
Juejun Hu: MIT
Nathan Youngblood: The University of Pittsburgh
Georges Pavlidis: University of Connecticut
Carlos A. Ríos Ocampo: University of Maryland

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Nonvolatile photonic integrated circuits employing phase change materials have relied either on optical switching with precise multi-level control but poor scalability or electrical switching with seamless integration and scalability but mostly limited to a binary response. The main limitation of the latter is relying on stochastic nucleation, since its random nature hinders the repeatability of multi-level states. Here, we show engineered waveguide-integrated microheaters to achieve precise spatial control of the temperature profile (i.e., hotspot) and, thus, switch deterministic areas of an embedded phase change material. We experimentally demonstrate this concept using a variety of foundry-processed doped-silicon microheaters on a silicon-on-insulator platform featuring Sb2Se3 or Ge2Sb2Se4Te and achieve 27 cycles with 7 repeatable levels each. We further characterize the microheaters’ response using Transient Thermoreflectance Imaging. Our microstructure engineering concept demonstrates the evasive repeatable multi-levels employing a single microheater device, which is necessary for robust and energy-efficient reprogrammable phase change photonics in analog processing and computing.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-59399-6

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