Radiation-hardened silicon photonic passive devices on a 3 µm waveguide platform under gamma and proton irradiation

Silicon photonics is considered to be an ideal solution as optical interconnect in radiation environments. Our previous study has demonstrated experimentally that radiation responses of device are related to waveguide size, and devices with thick top silicon waveguide layers are expected to be less sensitive to irradiation. Here, we design radiation-resistant arrayed waveguide gratings and Mach-Zehnder interferometers based on silicon-on-insulator with 3 µm-thick silicon optical waveguide platform. The devices are exposed to ⁶⁰Co γ-ray irradiation up to 41 Mrad(Si) and 170-keV proton irradiation with total fluences from 1×10¹³ to 1×10¹⁶ p/cm² to evaluate performance after irradiation. The results show that these devices can function well and have potential application in harsh radiation environments.