Publications de Niels Quack | EPFL Graph Search

Volatile and non-volatile nano-electromechanical switches fabricated in a CMOS-compatible silicon-on-insulator foundry process

Nanoelectromechanical (NEM) switches have the advantages of zero leakage current, abrupt switching characteristics, and harsh environmental capabilities. This makes them a promising component for digital computing circuits when high energy efficiency under ...

2025

Temperature-dependent properties of single crystal diamond nanopillars

Niels Quack, Marcell Kristof Kiss

Diamonds possess significant hardness and durability; however, any attempt to deform them typically leads to brittle fracture. In this study, we comprehensively characterize nanoscale diamond at elevated temperatures, using a combination of experimental an ...

Elsevier BV2025

Efficient Low‐Voltage Phase Shifter with Inkjet‐Printed Liquid Crystal on a Silicon on Insulator Platform

Niels Quack, Alain Yuji Takabayashi

A new electro‐optic phase shifter device architecture consisting of two lateral rail electrodes in doped silicon close to a waveguide with a liquid crystal cladding is demonstrated. Starting with a completed silicon photonics wafer of IMEC's iSiPP50G platf ...

Wiley2025

A compact 2 × 2 optical gate using a silicon photonic MEMS dual-drive directional coupler

Niels Quack, Alain Yuji Takabayashi

Reconfigurable optical gates control power and phase in programmable photonic circuits. However, state-of-the-art optical gates are power-hungry due to using heaters and large due to using Mach-Zehnder Interferometers. Here, we demonstrate a compact low-po ...

SPIE2025

Development of Electrical and Optical Packaging for Silicon Photonic MEMS

Niels Quack

We demonstrate a packaging approach to integrate electrical and optical connections in silicon photonic MEMS, utilizing a custom-designed silicon interposer for routing over 118 electrical connections and a 72 channel fiber array to couple to on-chip fiber ...

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.2024

Fully reconfigurable MEMS-based second-order coupled-resonator optical waveguide (CROW) with ultra-low tuning energy

Niels Quack, Alain Yuji Takabayashi

Integrated microring resonators are well suited for wavelength-filtering applications in optical signal processing, and cascaded microring resonators allow flexible filter design in coupledresonator optical waveguide (CROW) configurations. However, the imp ...

Optica Publishing Group2023

A MEMS tunable phase monitor with integrated photodiode read-out for silicon photonic circuits

Niels Quack, Alain Yuji Takabayashi

Electrostatic MEMS provide low power consumption to programmable photonics. However, the scaling of programmable photonics also requires solutions for circuit monitoring. We demonstrate a MEMS tunable phase monitor with integrated read-out on a foundry pla ...

Optical Society of America2023

Vacuum-sealed silicon photonic MEMS tunable ring resonator with an independent control over coupling and phase

Niels Quack, Alain Yuji Takabayashi

Ring resonators are a vital element for filters, optical delay lines, or sensors in silicon photonics. However, reconfigurable ring resonators with low-power consumption are not available in foundries today. We demonstrate an add-drop ring resonator with t ...

Optica Publishing Group2023

Integrated 4-terminal single-contact nanoelectromechanical relays implemented in a silicon-on-insulator foundry process

Niels Quack, Alain Yuji Takabayashi

Integrated nanoelectromechanical (NEM) relays can be used instead of transistors to implement ultra-low power logic circuits, due to their abrupt turn off characteristics and zero off-state leakage. Further, realizing circuits with 4-terminal (4-T) NEM rel ...

Royal Soc Chemistry2023

Micro- or nanostructured optical element

Niels Quack, Dorian Giraud Herle

A micro- or nanostructured optical element (1) is proposed comprising: a membrane (3) with an array of holes (5), the membrane (3) comprising a membrane light wave facing surface; an array of pillars (7) sized and shaped such that a respective pillar (7) i ...

2023

Editorial Foreword to The ECOC 2022 Special Issue

Hans Georg Limberger, Rachel Grange, Niels Quack, Christian Bosshard

The European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC) is one of the leading conferences in the field of optical communications and its related topics. The 48th edition took place from 18th-22nd September 2022 in Basel, Switzerland. The conference attrac ...

IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers2023

Integrated silicon photonic MEMS

Niels Quack, Hamed Sattari, Alain Yuji Takabayashi

Silicon photonics has emerged as a mature technology that is expected to play a key role in critical emerging applications, including very high data rate optical communications, distance sensing for autonomous vehicles, photonic-accelerated computing, and ...

SPRINGERNATURE2023

Broadband Mechanically Tunable Metasurface Reflectivity Modulator in the Visible Spectrum

Niels Quack, Olivier Martin, Luis Guillermo Villanueva Torrijo, Dorian Giraud Herle, Andrei Kiselev

Reflectivity modulation is a critical feature for applicationsin telecommunications, 3D imaging and printing, advanced laser machining,or portable displays. Tunable metasurfaces have recently emerged asa promising implementation for miniaturized and high-p ...

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2023

Neuronal growth on high-aspect-ratio diamond nanopillar arrays for biosensing applications

Niels Quack, Hilal Lashuel, Christophe Marcel Georges Galland, Maurizio Ferdinando Pezzoli, Somanath Jagannath, Hossein Babashah, Elena Losero

Monitoring neuronal activity with simultaneously high spatial and temporal resolution in living cell cultures is crucial to advance understanding of the development and functioning of our brain, and to gain further insights in the origin of brain disorders ...

Nature Portfolio2023

MORPHIC: MEMS enhanced silicon photonics for programmable photonics

Niels Quack, Hamed Sattari, Alain Yuji Takabayashi

We present our work in the European project MORPHIC to extend an established silicon photonics platform with low-power and non-volatile micro-electromechanical (MEMS) actuators to demonstrate large-scale programmable photonic integrated circuits (PICs). ...

SPIE-INT SOC OPTICAL ENGINEERING2022

Wafer-level hermetically sealed silicon photonic MEMS

Niels Quack, Hamed Sattari, Alain Yuji Takabayashi

The emerging fields of silicon (Si) photonic micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and optomechanics enable a wide range of novel high-performance photonic devices with ultra-low power consumption, such as integrated optical MEMS phase shifters, tunable c ...

CHINESE LASER PRESS2022

Compact Integrated Silicon Photonic Mems Power Coupler For Programmable Photonics

Niels Quack, Hamed Sattari, Alain Yuji Takabayashi

Programmable photonics promise a plethora of optical functions while at the same time reducing the time and costs of photonic integrated circuit (PIC) development. One primary bottleneck for development of these systems is the difficulty in increasing comp ...

IEEE2022

Multichannel Smart Slit Assembly For Spectroscopy Based On Arrays Of Variable Optical Mems Attenuators

Niels Quack, Anton Lagosh

We present design, fabrication and experimental characterization of a multichannel Smart Slit Assembly for next generation spectrometers, based on an array of 40 variable optical attenuators employing MEMS shutters integrated with large core multimode rect ...

IEEE2022

Biocompatible surface functionalization architecture for a diamond quantum sensor

Niels Quack

Quantum metrology enables some of the most precise measurements. In the life sciences, diamond-based quantum sensing has led to a new class of biophysical sensors and diagnostic devices that are being investigated as a platform for cancer screening and ult ...

National Academy of Sciences2022

Optical Properties of Aluminium Nitride on Insulator for Integrated Photonics

Niels Quack, Luis Guillermo Villanueva Torrijo, Marco Liffredo

Aluminium nitride is a promising photonic material from the ultra-violet to the mid-infrared spectral range. We present spectroscopic ellipsometry of sputtered AlN thin films on insulator in the spectral range 0.19 mu m - 25 mu m, surface roughness charact ...

IEEE2022