CMOS-Compatible Silicon Photonic Sensor for Refractive Index Sensing Using Local Back-Side Release

Silicon photonic sensors are promising candidates for lab-on-a-chip solutions with versatile applications and scalable production prospects using complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) fabrication methods. However, the wide-spread use has been hindered because the sensing area adjoins optical and electrical components making packaging and sensor handling challenging. In this work, a local back-side release of the photonic sensor is employed, enabling a separation of the sensing area from the rest of the chip. This approach allows preserving the compatibility of photonic integrated circuits in the front-end of line and metal interconnects in the back-end of line. The sensor is based on a micro-ring resonator and is fabricated on wafer-level using a CMOS technology. We revealed a ring resonator sensitivity for homogeneous sensing of 106 nm/RIU.