Polarization insensitive liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) phase modulators and related devices and methods

A liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) device providing a substantially polarization independent response to input light, the LCOS device comprising:

• a glass substrate having first and second opposing surfaces;
• a silicon backplane having first and second opposing surfaces;
• a liquid crystal material between the first surface of the glass substrate adjacent the liquid crystal material and the first surface of the silicon backplane adjacent the liquid crystal material;
• a first electrode on the glass substrate between the glass substrate and the liquid crystal material, the first electrode being a transparent electrode that provides a common potential voltage Vcom;
• and
• a second electrode on a frame buffer pixel circuit that includes a first electric gate, a source follower, and a second electric gate,
• wherein the second electrode in a pixel is not limited to frame buffer pixel circuit.

A method of fabricating a polymer quarter-wave plate (QWP) for a polarization insensitive optical phase modulator, the method comprising:

• providing a silicon backplane;
• forming a second electrode on the silicon backplane, the second electrode including individually addressable pixels and reflection metal mirrors on pixel surfaces;
• forming a linear photo-polymerization (LPP) layer on the first electrode;
• exposing the LPP layer to polarized ultra-violet (UV) light;
• forming a liquid crystal polymer (LCP) layer on the exposed LPP layer;
• and
• exposing the LCP layer to un-polarized UV light to provide the polymer quarter-wave plate (QWP) between the second electrode and a liquid crystal element.