Visible spectrum waveguiding in bulk CMOS.

Waveguiding across the visible spectrum in an unmodified bulk CMOS chip is reported. The chip is fabricated in a standard CMOS process, and a simple wet etch removes metal in predetermined locations to expose glass rib waveguides. A modified Euler bend is introduced to improve bend radii by nearly an order of magnitude in the rib waveguides, and upper-bound losses are measured at visible wavelengths. These losses range from 6.2 dB/cm at 450 nm to 3.2 dB/cm at 650 nm and represent the lowest losses reported at visible wavelengths in unmodified bulk CMOS.

Subtractive photonics.

Realization of a multilayer photonic process, as well as co-integration of a large number of photonic and electronic components on a single substrate, presents many advantages over conventional solutions and opens a pathway for various novel architectures and applications. Despite the many potential advantages, realization of a complex multilayer photonic process compatible with low-cost CMOS platforms remains challenging. In this paper, a photonic platform is investigated that uses subtractively manufactured structures to fabricate such systems. These structures are created solely using simple post-processing methods, with no modification to the foundry process. This method uses the well-controlled metal layers of advanced integrated electronics as sacrificial layers to define dielectric shapes as optical components. Metal patterns are removed using an etching process, leaving behind a complex multilayer photonic system, while keeping the electronics'metal wiring intact. This approach can be applied to any integrated chip with well-defined metallization, including those produced in pure electronics processes, pure photonics processes, heterogeneously integrated processes, monolithic electronic-photonic processes, etc. This paper provides a proof-of-concept example of monolithic electronic-photonic integration in a 65 nm bulk CMOS process and demonstrates proof-of-concept photonic structures. The fabrication results, characterization, and measurement data are presented.

Computational aberration correction of VIS-NIR multispectral imaging microscopy based on Fourier ptychography.

Due to the chromatic dispersion properties inherent in all optical materials, even the best-designed multispectral objective will exhibit residual chromatic aberration. Here, we demonstrate a multispectral microscope with a computational scheme based on the Fourier ptychographic microscopy (FPM) to correct these effects in order to render undistorted, in-focus images. The microscope consists of 4 spectral channels ranging from 405 nm to 1552 nm. After the computational aberration correction, it can achieve isotropic resolution enhancement as verified with the Siemens star sample. We image a flip-chip to show the promise of our system to conduct fault detection on silicon chips. This computational approach provides a cost-efficient strategy for high quality multispectral imaging over a broad spectral range.

High sensitivity active flat optics optical phased array receiver with a two-dimensional aperture.

Optical phased arrays (OPAs) on integrated photonic platforms provide a low-cost chip-scale solution for many applications. Despite the numerous demonstrations of OPA transmitters, the realization of a functional OPA receiver presents a challenge due to the low received signal level in the presence of noise and interference that necessitates high sensitivity of the receiver. In this paper, an integrated receiver system is presented that is capable of on-chip adaptive manipulation and processing of the captured waveform. The receiver includes an optoelectronic mixer that down-converts optical signals to radio frequencies while maintaining their phase and amplitude information. The optoelectronic mixer also provides conversion gain that enhances the system sensitivity and its robustness to noise and interference. Using this system, the first OPA receiver with a two-dimensional aperture of 8-by-8 receiving elements is demonstrated which can selectively receive light from 64 different angles. The OPA receiver can form reception beams with a beamwidth of 0.75° over an 8° grating-lobe-free field of view.

Self-equalizing photodiodes, a hybrid electro-optical approach to tackle bandwidth limitation in high-speed signaling.

In this paper we provide the design details of self-equalizing photodetectors which enable higher data rate transmission by improving the overall bandwidth of the bandwidth limited transmission link, through a hybrid electro-optical solution. Two different self-equalizing photodiodes, one having fixed equalization and the other being programmable are presented as proof of concept.

Binary particle swarm optimized 2 × 2 power splitters in a standard foundry silicon photonic platform.

Compact power splitters designed ab initio using binary particle swarm optimization in a 2D mesh for a standard foundry silicon photonic platform are studied. Designs with a 4.8 µm×4.8 µm footprint composed of 200 nm×200 nm and 100 nm×100 nm cells are demonstrated. Despite not respecting design rules, the design with the smaller cells had lower insertion losses and broader bandwidth and showed consistent behavior across the wafer. Deviations between design and experiments point to the need for further investigations of the minimum feature dimensions.

Nanophotonic projection system.

Low-power integrated projection technology can play a key role in development of low-cost mobile devices with built-in high-resolution projectors. Low-cost 3D imaging and holography systems are also among applications of such a technology. In this paper, an integrated projection system based on a two-dimensional optical phased array with fast beam steering capability is reported. Forward biased p-i-n phase modulators with 200MHz bandwidth are used per each array element for rapid phase control. An optimization algorithm is implemented to compensate for the phase dependent attenuation of the p-i-n modulators. Using rapid vector scanning technique, images were formed and recorded within a single snapshot of the IR camera.

Nanophotonic coherent imager.

An integrated silicon nanophotonic coherent imager (NCI), with a 4 × 4 array of coherent pixels is reported. In the proposed NCI, on-chip optical processing determines the intensity and depth of each point on the imaged object based on the instantaneous phase and amplitude of the optical wave incident on each pixel. The NCI operates based on a modified time-domain frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) ranging scheme, where concurrent time-domain measurements of both period and the zero-crossing time of each electrical output of the nanophotonic chip allows the NCI to overcome the traditional resolution limits of frequency domain detection. The detection of both intensity and relative delay enables applications such as high-resolution 3D reflective and transmissive imaging as well as index contrast imaging. We demonstrate 3D imaging with 15µm depth resolution and 50µm lateral resolution (limited by the pixel spacing) at up to 0.5-meter range. The reported NCI is also capable of detecting a 1% equivalent refractive index contrast at 1mm thickness.

A handheld magnetic sensing platform for antigen and nucleic acid detection.

The core requirements for point-of-care (POC) diagnostics necessitate low-cost, portability, easily integrated sample preparation, and quick measurement time. Frequency-shift based magnetic sensing is a measurement technique utilizing a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) integrated-circuit (IC) chip for magnetic label detection. The sensing scheme leverages the low-cost manufacturing of IC chips while demonstrating the potential for multiplexing capabilities. In this article, we present modifications to this scheme for POC viability. We introduce a handheld reusable reader and a disposable open-well cartridge for the detection of nucleic acids and antigens. The diagnostic system utilizes a novel "magnetic freezing" technique to reduce measurement time, obviates baseline measurement before or during biological assay, and reduces sensor noise. We utilize these enhancements for the room temperature, amplification-free detection of a 31 base-pair DNA oligomer and the interferon-γ (IFN-γ) protein. We have demonstrated reliable measurements down to 100 pM for the DNA assay and 1 pM for the protein.

A Silicon Photonics Computational Lensless Active-Flat-Optics Imaging System.

The need for lightweight, miniature imaging systems is becoming increasingly prevalent in light of the development of wearable electronics, IoT devices, and drones. Computational imaging enables new types of imaging systems that replace standard optical components like lenses with cleverly designed computational processes. Traditionally, many of these types of systems use conventional complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) or charge coupled device (CCD) sensors for data collection. While this allows for rapid development of large-scale systems, the lack of system-sensor co-design limits the compactness and performance. Here we propose integrated photonics as a candidate platform for the implementation of such co-integrated systems. Using grating couplers and co-designed computational processing in lieu of a lens, we demonstrate the use of silicon photonics as a viable platform for computational imaging with a prototype lensless imaging device. The proof-of-concept device has 20 sensors and a 45-degree field of view, and its optics and sensors are contained within a 2,000 µm × 200 µm × 20 µm volume.

Dynamically Programmable Magnetic Fields for Controlled Movement of Cells Loaded with Iron Oxide Nanoparticles.

Cell-based therapies are becoming increasingly prominent in numerous medical contexts, particularly in regenerative medicine and the treatment of cancer. However, since the efficacy of the therapy is largely dependent on the concentration of therapeutic cells at the treatment area, a major challenge associated with cell-based therapies is the ability to move and localize therapeutic cells within the body. In this article, a technique based on dynamically programmable magnetic fields is successfully demonstrated to noninvasively aggregate therapeutic cells at a desired location. Various types of therapeutically relevant cells (neural stem cells, monocytes/macrophages, and chimeric antigen receptor T cells) are loaded with iron oxide nanoparticles and then focused at a particular site using externally controlled electromagnets. These experimental results serve as a readily scalable prototype for designing an apparatus that patients can wear to focus therapeutic cells at the anatomical sites needed for treatment.

Functionalized iron oxide nanoparticles for controlling the movement of immune cells.

Immunotherapy is currently being investigated for the treatment of many diseases, including cancer. The ability to control the location of immune cells during or following activation would represent a powerful new technique for this field. Targeted magnetic delivery is emerging as a technique for controlling cell movement and localization. Here we show that this technique can be extended to microglia, the primary phagocytic immune cells in the central nervous system. The magnetized microglia were generated by loading the cells with iron oxide nanoparticles functionalized with CpG oligonucleotides, serving as a proof of principle that nanoparticles can be used to both deliver an immunostimulatory cargo to cells and to control the movement of the cells. The nanoparticle-oligonucleotide conjugates are efficiently internalized, non-toxic, and immunostimulatory. We demonstrate that the in vitro migration of the adherent, loaded microglia can be controlled by an external magnetic field and that magnetically-induced migration is non-cytotoxic. In order to capture video of this magnetically-induced migration of loaded cells, a novel 3D-printed "cell box" was designed to facilitate our imaging application. Analysis of cell movement velocities clearly demonstrate increased cell velocities toward the magnet. These studies represent the initial step towards our final goal of using nanoparticles to both activate immune cells and to control their trafficking within the diseased brain.

Design and implementation of an integrated magnetic spectrometer for multiplexed biosensing.

Magnetic spectroscopy allows for characterization of the magnetic susceptibility of magnetic beads across a broad frequency range. This enables differentiation and quantification of multiple beads of varying types concurrently present in the active volume of a sensor's surface. A magnetic spectrometer can be used for multi-probe tagging and identification akin to multi-color fluorescent bio-sensing. We propose a new sensing methodology to perform magnetic spectroscopy and analyze various important design parameters such as SNR and gain uniformity. We present a proof-of-concept design of a fully integrated CMOS magnetic spectrometer that can detect, quantify, and characterize magnetic materials in the 1.1 GHz to 3.3 GHz frequency range, where we demonstrate magnetic multiplexing capability using a mixture of two different kinds of magnetic beads. The sensor consumes less than 2 mW of DC power within the whole frequency range, requires no external biasing magnetic fields, is implemented in a standard CMOS process, and can be powered and operated completely from a USB interface. The magnetic spectrometer not only increases the throughput and multiplexing of biosensing experiments for a given sensor area, but also can enable additional applications, such as magnetic flow cytometry and signal-collocation assays of multiple probes.

A magnetic cell-based sensor.

Cell-based sensing represents a new paradigm for performing direct and accurate detection of cell- or tissue-specific responses by incorporating living cells or tissues as an integral part of a sensor. Here we report a new magnetic cell-based sensing platform by combining magnetic sensors implemented in the complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) integrated microelectronics process with cardiac progenitor cells that are differentiated directly on-chip. We show that the pulsatile movements of on-chip cardiac progenitor cells can be monitored in a real-time manner. Our work provides a new low-cost approach to enable high-throughput screening systems as used in drug development and hand-held devices for point-of-care (PoC) biomedical diagnostic applications.