Photonic integrated circuits with externally modulated emitters

An integrated photonics circuit, comprising:

• a first integrated circuit, comprising:
• one or more optical coupling devices configured to receive light incident upon a first surface of the first integrated circuit;
• and
• one or more planar guided wave modulators, each coupled to a corresponding optical coupling device and configured to receive and externally modulate light from the corresponding optical coupling device;
• and
• a second integrated circuit, comprising one or more emitters configured to emit light toward the first surface of the first integrated circuit,
• wherein the light has a radiation pattern that includes a direction orthogonal to the one or more planar guided wave modulators, and
• wherein the first integrated circuit is coupled to the second integrated circuit in a stacked, chip-to-chip manner.

A method of externally modulating broadband light in an integrated photonics circuit, the method comprising:

• emitting, by a broadband emitter, broadband light having a radiation pattern that includes a direction orthogonal to a planar guided wave modulator toward a first surface of a first integrated circuit;
• receiving, by an optical coupling device coupled to the planar guided wave modulator on the first surface of the first integrated circuit, at least a portion of the broadband light from the broadband emitter without optical fiber coupling;
• and
• modulating, by the planar guided wave modulator, the broadband light to produce a modulated optical data stream.