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US 10,241,266 B2Granted
Phase tuning in waveguide arrays
AssigneeAurrion, Inc.
InventorsJared Bauters, Brian R. Koch, Jonathan Edgar Roth, Gregory Alan Fish
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The wavelength response of an arrayed waveguide grating can be tuned, in accordance with various embodiments, using a beam sweeper including one or more heaters to shift a lateral position of light focused by the beam sweeper at an interface of the beam sweeper with an input free propagation region of the arrayed waveguide grating.
Claims20
A photonic integrated circuit (PIC) comprising:
- a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate comprising a silicon handle, a buried oxide layer disposed on top of the silicon handle, a silicon device layer disposed on top of the buried oxide layer, and a cladding layer disposed on top of the silicon device layer;
- an array of waveguides formed at least partially within the silicon device layer;
- one or more pairs of forward and backward heaters disposed at least partially within at least one of the cladding layer or the silicon device layer and laterally overlapping with the array of waveguides, each heater configured to impart an incremental heat-induced phase shift between the waveguides, the phase shift imparted by the forward heater being of an opposite sign than the phase shift imparted by the backward heater;
- and
- one or more back-etched regions formed within the silicon handle underneath respective one or more bidirectional pair of heaters.
2 more elements
A method comprising:
- in a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) comprising a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate, an array of waveguides formed at least partially within a silicon device layer of the SOI substrate, a pair of forward and backward heaters disposed at least partially within at least one of a cladding layer or the silicon device layer and laterally overlapping with the array of waveguides, and a back-etched region formed within the SOI substrate underneath the pair of heaters,
- using one of the forward or backward heaters to impart incremental heat-induced phase shifts between adjacent waveguides of the array, the phase shifts imparted by the forward heater being of an opposite sign than the phase shifts imparted by the backward heater,
- wherein the back-etched region reduces dissipation of heat generated by the one of the forward or backward heaters in the SOI substrate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.