Coupling light source to photonic integrated circuit

A device comprising:

• a light source emitting illumination light;
• an optical waveguide having a light input coupler, wherein an emission aperture of the light source is tilted with respect to a plane of the optical waveguide;
• and
• a light director configured to receive the illumination light and direct the illumination light to the light input coupler as shaped light, wherein light director is configured to give the shaped light a smaller divergence angle than an illumination light divergence angle of the illumination light.

A method of fabricating a photonic integrated circuit, the method comprising:

• forming a waveguide layer that includes a waveguide immersed in a cladding layer, wherein the waveguide includes a light input coupler;
• forming a light director layer including a light director over the waveguide layer, wherein a top plane of the waveguide layer is coupled with a bottom plane of the light director layer;
• and
• disposing a light source over the light director layer, wherein the light source is positioned to illuminate the light director, and wherein the light director is configured to receive illumination light from the light source and direct the illumination light to the light input coupler as shaped light, wherein the light director is configured to tilt the illumination light to give the shaped light a tilt angle with respect to the light input coupler.