Integrated variable optical attenuator
AssigneeLumentum Technology UK Limited
InventorsBruce Saleeb-Mousa, Daniel Jorge Pires Jalo, Hatem Elrefaei, Ron Moore
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Abstract
In some implementations, an electro-optical device includes a multi-mode interferometer (MMI) variable optical attenuator (VOA), comprising: an input to receive an optical beam; an output to output the optical beam; and an optical waveguide to couple the input to the output, wherein the optical waveguide is configured to self-image the optical beam within the optical waveguide; and a control component to apply a forward voltage across the MMI VOA to control attenuation of the MMI VOA.
Claims20
A variable optical attenuator (VOA), comprising:
- a multi-mode interferometer (MMI), comprising:
- an optical waveguide,
- wherein a set of parameters of the optical waveguide is configured to cause a set of modes of an optical beam to interfere and self-image the optical beam;
- and
- a control component to apply a forward voltage across the VOA to control attenuation of the VOA,
- wherein a change in a part of a refractive index of the optical waveguide is associated with carrier injection associated with the forward voltage,
- wherein the VOA includes a conductive region and a non-conductive region, and
- wherein the non-conductive region is configured to cause one or more first portions of the VOA to be associated with different forward voltages compared to one or more second portions of the VOA, based on a geometry of the non-conductive region.
An electro-optical device, comprising:
- at least one multi-mode interferometer (MMI) variable optical attenuator (VOA),
- an MMI VOA, of the at least one MMI VOA, comprising:
- an input to receive an optical beam;
- an output to output the optical beam;
- and
- a multi-mode waveguide to couple the input to the output,
- wherein a set of parameters of the multi-mode waveguide are associated with self-imaging the optical beam within the multi-mode waveguide, the set of parameters including at least one of a set of geometric parameters and/or a set of material parameters;
- and
- a control component to apply a forward voltage across the MMI VOA to control attenuation of the MMI VOA,
- wherein the forward voltage causes a current to pass through the MMI,
- wherein a change in a real and/or imaginary part of a refractive index of the multi-mode waveguide is associated with carrier injection associated with the current,
- wherein the electro-optical device includes a conductive region and a non-conductive region, and
- wherein the non-conductive region is configured to cause one or more first portions of the electro-optical device to be associated with different forward voltages compared to one or more second portions of the electro-optical device, based on a geometry of the non-conductive region.
An electro-optical device, comprising:
- a multi-mode interferometer (MMI) variable optical attenuator (VOA), comprising:
- an input to receive an optical beam;
- an output to output the optical beam;
- and
- a waveguide to couple the input to the output,
- wherein the waveguide is configured to self-imaging the optical beam within the waveguide;
- and
- a control component to apply a forward voltage across the MMI VOA to control attenuation of the MMI VOA,
- wherein the electro-optical device includes a conductive region and a non-conductive region, and
- wherein the non-conductive region is configured to cause one or more first portions of the electro-optical device to be associated with different forward voltages compared to one or more second portions of the electro-optical device, based on a geometry of the non-conductive region.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.