Manufacture reliability assessment of Si photonic foundry fabricated slow-light photonic crystal waveguides.

Single-line-defect (W1) photonic crystal waveguides hold significant promise for various applications in integrated photonics due to their ability to induce slow light across wide photonic band ranges. Ensuring the manufacturing reliability of these devices is paramount for their practical implementation, as they tend to be highly sensitive to fabrication deviations. In this study, we investigated the manufacturing reliability of photonic crystal waveguides fabricated at the Albany Nanotech Complex foundry by comparing the consistency of band-edge locations and group indices across 14 chips. We also provide FIB images of the fabricated photonic crystals allowing an analysis of the sidewall quality of the holes.