MIT researchers develop flexible, transparent silicon-photonics chips

Researchers at MIT, in collaboration with engineers at the Albany NanoTech Complex, have developed a scalable fabrication platform to create flexible and transparent silicon-photonics chips. While conventional silicon-photonics chips are typically rigid and opaque, this new method utilizes established semiconductor manufacturing processes on 300-mm wafers to produce chips that are only a few microns thick.

The process involves depositing optical waveguides on a silicon substrate, bonding a temporary wafer, removing the original substrate, and attaching a thin, transparent polyester film. This allows the resulting devices to maintain performance even after being bent thousands of times around various diameters, including objects as narrow as a small screw.

This technological advancement could enable new applications for photonic integrated circuits, such as conformable health monitors that wrap around the body and curved augmented-reality optical systems, such as pilot visors in aircraft.