Waveguiding for CMOS based optocoupling

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the optocoupling efficiency of a commercial CMOS processes. These optical links are to be used both for data transfer speeds and galvanic isolation purposes. The the results of previous work on a commercial CMOS process ”A-BCD9” were confirmed, and similar coupling efficiency results were investigated for another commercial CMOS process ”SMARTMOS10HV” with the use of the FDTD simulator ”Lumerical” Other aspects are also investigated such as losses due to absorption and losses due to lack of guiding. A major change in the link geometry is explored and tested - ”The stacked die approach” with success. Some minor improvements are suggested and tested with this new geometrical structure such as a layer between the stacked dies. Some further suggestions are made for further work. The study is done solely with the use of ”Lumerical” FDTD program. The results found confirmed that guiding efficiency of the newer ”SMARTMOS10HV” is worse than that of ”A-BCD9”, however the new optocoupling geometry provides a substantial improvement, and so does a well engineered layer between the stacked dies.