Introduction
Photonics is a unit taught in engineering classes as well as physics classes with the aim of studying the generation of light, emission, modulation amplification, and light sensing. We will see how photonics relates to optical sources, mainly high-power lasers. Meanwhile, high-power lasers are a byproduct of a semiconductor diode doped by the injection of charge carriers from N-type material and P-type material. A doped semiconductor forms a final product of a P-N junction, which when biased by electrical energy forms a powerful laser. These lasers are prominent in the industry in many ways ranging from domestic use to industrial use.
Photonics
Photonics is a field of engineering that teaches those light application, involving light generation, emission, modulation, amplification, and light sensing. It is helpful in sectors like Telecommunication engineering, fiber, and Optical wavelengths, and optical sources. The field of science and technology has been transforming from analogy generation to digital generation, hence; the field has grown on a rapid transformation. Photonics is a high technology electronic unit, which has grown rapidly from the early 18th century. It includes optical communication, optical imaging, computing and data storage, optical detectors, and lasers.
Meanwhile, the introduction of electronics has increased due to upcoming innovations and technology from scientific pioneers. All ideas found in the photonics course consider their arguments on photons systems- one of the interdisciplinary fields crossing physics, physical chemistry, and electrical engineering. Technologies in photonics continue to improve the enhancement of people’s lives. Laser photons are one of the optical sources that come in different types according to the material used. They include; Diode lasers, Infrared laser, laser systems, and laser health (Vasan, 56-162).
Optical sources
Technical optical systems have a combined approach in the field of engineering. This leads to various innovations, hence leading to the provision of digital devices like radiometry, ocul,ar devices and digital receivers. A comprehensive treatment of optical sources combines various modern electronics like digital optics and various digital systems to make a single chip. Medical thermography, fiber optical communications and CCD cameras constitute what optical devices are.
Meanwhile, the demand of data transmission increases due to the introduction of Internet applications, which has changed people’s lives, covering and controlling various types of business in the world. The transmission of optical channels at large on a single optical fiber has been easy due to the introduction of multiplexing. Multiplexing is a process of transmitting various data sources within a single channel.
The introduction of the multiplexing process, which involves switching and routing of signals on an optical domain led to large demands on the optical sources referred to as lasers, hence; it comes in various systems formation for different purposes.
Many engineers in the field of telecommunication employ their professionals basing their interests on the current new optical networks ideas, hence; the technology in electronics involving the use of the laser is widely studied hence having covered a variety of optical sources used in the engineering field. Fiber optic data link appears in three basic functions which include optical components like optics, Encoders, and scales, optical systems design like ZEMAX: Powerful and fiber optic temperature sensors. The introduction of fiber optic worldwide resulted from the innovations in signal data transmission, which is a byproduct of the optical signal from an electrical signal.
Fiber optic transmitter
A fiber optic has a power laser that converts and diverges deviated light into a useful position. The conversion of digital data signals has made transmission easy, and nowadays media houses and telecommunication industries use optic fiber techniques for its transmission purposes.
Types of Optical sources
An optical source is a fundamental component in a fiber optical that converts electrical energy into light. Incandescent lamps,light-emitting diodes and Monochromatic rational sources belong to the group of high-power lasers. They are highly used in the industries in various ways. Attenuation and fiber dispersion introduced at the early stage of optical communication fiber has powerful narrow band with coherent light sources, solving several data communication problems. The introduction of light emitting diodes and semiconductor injection laser improved the functioning and properties of fiber transmission, providing reputation of optical sources.
Lasers are useful in fiber communication, since it helps in the emission of lights in a directional position. From this position, the power laser tracks electrical input signal by minimizing distortion due to noise, modulates absolute signal over a wide range of bandwidth, providing powerful optical energy to overcome attenuation and has narrow spectral bandwidth, which maximizes fiber dispersion. Optical sources include; white-light sources, solid-state lasers, high-power lasers, lasers for industrial applications (micromachining) and Lasers for biological applications (surgery, including cosmetic).
Basic Characteristics of high power lasers diode
A laser diode is a semi-conductor chip that works with a photo diode chip. They use minute chip to produce rational light in a small package. In a laser diode LED, solid diode devices are active in solid state. Coldren and Corzine in their book defined a laser diode (LEDs) as “a formation of a doped thin crystal wafer done on the layer of the surface of a crystal wafer”. Laser diodes are a byproduct of a semiconductor P-N junction material.
Electrical energy biasing method causes an injection of charge carriers within a semiconductor material. Holes come from P-type regions while the N-type region provides electrons. Diode lasers lead to the formation of resonant hole differentiated by mirrors curved shaped on both sides. The properties of semiconductors used to make a power laser and its physical structure determines the output wavelength produced on a chip. It consists of tunable lasers that use external cavity optics to produce a continuous and a wide range of wavelengths (Coldren and Corzine, 113- 174).
Photolithography
The introduction of lithography into microchip manufacturing industries has led to the elimination of bigger semiconductors products hence, reducing the size of integrated circuits produced in this modern technology. The cost of production has rises in commercial industries twice as compared to the early methods of a single process initiated. Meanwhile, the provision of a higher quality ultraviolet lithography method has led to the growth of most industries worldwide to produce efficient, integrated circuits.
They produce shorter wavelengths useful in the formation of high quality microchip integrated circuits used in digital industries. Photolithography is a process involving micro fabrication that eases integration activities. Lithography is a method used in printing employing photographic technology that involves the use of light. During photolithography process, a photo-resist exposed to light dissolves to make a byproduct.
Chip manufacturing
An electronic device is a formed by integrated circuit, manufactured with high technology involving the formation of a thin substrate from the surface of a semiconductor material. In the world of electronics, integrated circuits are useful in many electronics devices, which form part of circuited chip that performs different work according to how electronically can be programmed. However, we have hybrid integrated circuits, which are because of passive components and semiconductor devices.
These chip sets are useful in cellular phones, computers and digital appliances. Chip manufacturing has heat worldwide market due to the provision of new microchip with extreme technology. Semiconductor materials fabricate a wafer by blueprints mask technology. The growth of chip manufactures has heat computer era that eases the production of microprocessor, memories, video processors and chip sets (Kasap, 99-151).
In the mid 20th century, most of the electronics devices use vacuum tubes. Meanwhile, the introduction of semiconductor fabrication led to the invention of new technology resulting into the growth of transistors. However, the use of transistors was anonymous, and this forces chip-manufacturing industries to install other methods of how they can combine several transistors into a single chip. They came up with integrated circuits made from circuit design, which is a combination of many transistors together.
A photolithography method involved in manufacturing of these integrated circuits, which are cheap in terms of cost since several transistors combined in one component. Discrete circuit is expensive to construct since it consumes a lot of material during construction as compared to integrated circuit. An integrated circuit has a higher performance, and it consumes less power due to fewer components used to form an IC.
Generations of integrated circuits
An integrated circuit relates with the principle of P-N junction, which is a process of biasing a P-N junction to provide integrated circuit design. Integrated circuits are divided into three generations. First-generation integrated circuits have digital circuits integrated with small-scale integration techniques, which have a provision of a few logic gates with a total number of ten transistors. Small-scale integration circuits were mainly used for small-scale digital electronics purposes hence; they could not be used for medium electronics. This led to the introduction of a second-generation integrated circuit known as medium-scale integration.
Medium-scale integration circuits are economical in terms of cost as compared to small-scale circuits. MSI circuits has a hundred transistor fabricated on a single chip with complex logic gates. The growth of Medium-scale integration circuits led to the development of large-scale integration circuits due to the market demand, which allowed the fabrication of tens of thousands of transistors on one chip. However, very-large-scale integrated circuits development was done in the mid 80s, which had hundreds of thousands of transistors on a single chip.
Ever since, more inventions have evolves which led to the provision of electronics devices with high technology having millions of billions of transistors in one chip. These memories are less costly, consumes less power and cheap to maintain. Moreover, we have analog, Digital and mixed signal integrated circuits. Digital circuits contain millions of logic gates, flip-flops and multiplexers on one chip with high speed due to the small size it takes within a chip. Digital integrated circuits works under processing speed that fluctuate within “1” and ”0”-one of the key binary numbers. However, analog circuits produce continuous signals as seen by devices like operational amplifiers.
Advanced integrated circuits
In advanced integrated circuit, Logic CMOS are used as switching circuits, which are made from digital memory chips, integrated with complex circuits design, allowing the use of lower power and an increase in the processing speed. However, the introduction of advanced integrated circuits has helped to transform computer revolution by providing consistent chips, which are the Heart of modern technology digital devices. Computer chips are made from transistors capable of switching on and off digital circuits. Complementary metal Oxide semiconductors are widely used in the manufacturing of computer devices that are characterized by a logic gate and a drain.
CMOS transistor has a gate that moves electrons from the source to drain, a source and a drain terminal. Application of voltage on the gate biases the gate hence this allows electrons to flow making the semiconductor material conduct. When voltage is absent, the material stops to conduct. This process fluctuates within a binary of “1” and “0” (Yeh and Yariv, 42-109).
Photolithography process on Integrated circuits fabrication
During integrated circuits fabrication, mono-crystals and gallium arsenide materials are used leading to the formation of digital devices like LEDs, lasers and solar cells with highest speed. Semiconductor integrated circuits are fabricated using imaging, deposition and etching process, which are doped and cleansed. Photolithography methods of manufacturing are used to separate mono-crystal silicon wafers substrates into different groups with different characteristics by introducing doping method. However, integrated circuits are byproduct of overlapping layers separated using photolithography method.
During the manufacturing process, a transistor is formed when diffusion layer combines with the layer of the gate. The character fusible between logic gates makes CMOS devices to use less power as compared to bipolar one. A computer is an electronics device having many components. It has a Random Access Memory, one of the electronic devices made using integrated-circuit techniques that encompass photolithography process. During the manufacturing of microprocessors, as well as memories, ultraviolet light with high-frequency photons is used for patterns creations on each layer.
Conclusion
Overall, photonics have played a bigger role in the field of engineering field, scientific research and physics classes. The introduction of photonics has transformed electronics principles from analogue generation to digital generation. Electrical energy biases a semiconductor, causing an injection of charge carriers within that semiconductor material. The transmission of a large number of optical channels on a single optical fiber has been easy due to the introduction of multiplexing. Multiplexing is a process of transmitting various data sources within a single channel. Amplification process uses high-power lasers since some of them produce high-power output that used to provide energy. In addition, high-power lasers are useful in scientific research, engineering fields and security farms for security purposes.
Moreover, lithography is a technological innovation that is useful to the industrial sector since; semiconductors integrated circuits, and as a set of microchip, plates are manufacture using lithography ideas and technology. Lithography is a flexible method that has led to high and efficiency microchip production, reducing the cost of production and time for production to cover the emerging demand on the market. Photolithography method is useful since various digital devices has been manufactured which are less costly, consume less power and has high speed as compared to the early discoveries bipolar electronics devices.
References
Coldren, L. and Corzine, S. Diode Lasers and Photonic Integrated Circuits. United States: Wiley-Inter- science. 1995.
Kasap, S. Optoelectronics and Photonics: Principles and Practices. United Kingdom: Prentice Hall. 2001.
Vasan, S. Basics of Photonics and Optics. New York: Trafford Publishing. 2006.
Yeh, P. and Yariv, A. Photonics: Optical Electronics in Modern Communications (The Oxford Series in Electrical and Computer Engineering. United States; Oxford University Press. 2006.