Silicon photonic integrated circuit for on-chip spectroscopic gas sensing

We present a chip-scale spectroscopic methane sensor, incorporating a tunable laser, sensor waveguides, and methane reference cell, assembled as a compact silicon photonic integrated circuit. The sensor incorporates an InP-based semiconductor optical amplifier/photodetector array, flip-chip soldered onto a silicon photonic substrate using high-precision waveguide-to-waveguide interfaces. The InP chip provides gain for a hybrid external cavity laser operating at 1650 nm. The sensor features a 20-cm-long TM-mode evanescent-field waveguide as the sensing element and is compatible with high-volume wafer-scale silicon photonics manufacturing and assembly processes. This sensor can be an enabling platform for economical methane and more general distributed environmental trace-gas monitoring.