Trenchassisted

Trenchassisted is a generic term used to describe techniques that employ etched trenches to shape and control physical fields, such as electrical potential, optical confinement, or mechanical isolation. In trench-assisted designs, a trench is created in a substrate and may be filled with a selected material or left air-filled to produce a desired contrast in properties around the trench, thereby guiding or isolating signals and stresses.

In microelectronics, trench-assisted isolation refers to the deliberate formation of deep trenches, typically filled with dielectric material, to electrically isolate regions of a semiconductor device. This approach helps reduce leakage currents, suppress latch-up, increase breakdown voltage, and enable higher density integration. Variants include shallow trench isolation and deep trench isolation, with trench geometry tailored to device performance and thermal considerations.

In photonics and optoelectronics, trench-assisted structures use trenches around a core or waveguide to enhance mode confinement and reduce cross-talk between channels. Trench configurations can create refractive-index contrasts and boundary conditions that improve light guiding, enabling tighter bends, higher integration density, and improved performance in dense photonic circuits and in multicore or few-mode fiber systems.

Fabrication and design of trench-assisted systems involve selecting trench depth, width, fill material, and trench geometry, as well as managing thermal stress and process compatibility. The term is widely used across disciplines to describe approaches that use trenches to achieve isolation, confinement, or guiding effects, rather than referring to a single standardized technology.

See also: trench isolation, shallow trench isolation, trench MOSFET.