Integrated electro-optic (EO) modulators have become ubiquitous in the long-haul, high-capacity optical fiber telecommunications backbone, while they also find useful for a range of demanding applications like microwave/RF photonics, space/data communications, distributed sensing and lidar, inertial navigation, pulse shaping of industrial lasers, laser frequency stabilization and control, and now for photonic neural networks and quantum information processing.

This one-day training course provides industry with a practical know-how about all clean-room fabrication & characterization steps of an integrated LiNbO3 EO amplitude modulator. Attendees will leave the course with their fabricated demo, a 3-inch wafer fitted out with 11 patterned modulators.

The course will focus on 4 steps; 1) tutorial on the operating principle of an EO modulator; 2) fabrication of the optical waveguides by sputtering, lithography and etching; 3) fabrication of the Cr/Au thin electrodes including mask alignment. During fabrication, the devices are step-by-step quality controlled and tested; 4) optical and transmission tests of a fully packaged modulator.