Receiver Photonic Integrated Circuit (RxPIC) Chip Utilizing Compact Wavelength Selective Decombiners
AssigneeInfinera Corporation
InventorCharles Joyner
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A monolithic receiver photonic integrated circuit (RxPIC) chip includes a plurality of optical signal channels together with other active elements integrated on a semiconductor chip, which chips further include a wavelength selective decombiner comprising a supergrating or an Echelle grating which provides for a more compact chip compared to an integrated on-chip arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) functioning as a wavelength selective decombiner.
Claims20
A monolithic receiver photonic integrated circuit (RxPIC) chip comprising:
- an integrated wavelength selective decombiner for receiving a multiplexed multi-wavelength signal of N signal channels on an input waveguide to said decombiner, said decombiner comprising an elliptical supergrating;
- a plurality of integrated N photodetectors that are adjacent one edge of the chip and formed in a spatial parallel array, each photodetector optically coupled to receive a respective demultiplexed channel signal of N channel signals from said supergrating and producing an electrical signal of the respective signal channel;
- said input waveguide being part of the spatial parallel array.
A method of forming a receiver photonic integrated circuit (RxPIC) having a plurality of semiconductor layers, comprising the steps of:
- forming a plurality of integrated photodetectors on a substrate as part of the circuit, each the photodetectors having a transport layer and an adjacent core waveguide layer;
- forming an integrated wavelength selected optical decombiner in the circuit, the optical combiner comprising one or more gratings and having a plurality waveguides formed in the core
- waveguide layer from an output of the optical combiner with each waveguide optically coupled to a respective photodetector;
- and
- forming the decombiner grating or gratings in a semiconductor layer separate from the core waveguide layer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.