Optical properties of nitride-rich SiNx and its use in CMOS-compatible near-UV Bragg filter fabrication
Reinoud Wolfenbuttel (TU Delft - Electronic Instrumentation)
Declan Winship (University of Michigan)
Yutao Qin (University of Michigan)
Yogesh Gianchandani (University of Michigan)
David Bilby (Ford Motor Company)
Jaco H. Visser (Ford Motor Company)
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Abstract
Nitride-rich silicon-nitride (SiNx) is being explored for its potential as a suitable optical material for use in microsystems operating in the near-UV spectral range. Although silicon-rich SiNx is widely accepted as a CMOS-compatible dielectric and micromechanical material, its optical absorption limits application to the visible to near-IR spectral range. However, this work shows that a balance can be achieved between a sufficiently high index of refraction (n> 2) and an acceptable optical loss (k<10−3) in nitride-rich SiNx of appropriate composition (x∼1.45). Bragg reflectors with a design wavelength at λo= 330 nm are used for validation. PECVD is used for sample preparation and experiments confirm that the spectral range available for use of SiNx-based optical microsystems extends to wavelengths as low as 300 nm.
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