High Density Integration of Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers in InP Generic Photonic Integration Technology

We present experimental studies of semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA) with a high integration density in an InP generic photonic integration platform. We study the active-passive butt joint integration of dense arrays of active islands with widths ranging from 2 to 30 $\mu$ m, and pitches ranging from 4 to 270 $\mu$ m. We show that there is significant room for increasing the density of active island arrays while keeping a similar growth rate enhancement in between the active islands. The impact of narrow active islands on SOA performance is also studied with an array of Fabry-Pérot lasers fabricated in a commercial generic platform. We demonstrate the manufacturability of lasers with a pitch of 25 $\mu$ m and evaluate individual device performance. Threshold currents and slope efficiencies are not impaired with narrow active island down to 6 $\mu$ m, with values of 19–26 mA and 0.08–0.15 W/A respectively.