Traveling-wave acousto-optic modulator on thin silicon nitride

Abstract

An acousto-optic modulator (AOM) is developed on thin silicon nitride (SiN) photonics platform. Specifically, this disclosure demonstrates a novel technique to produce optically-broadband traveling-wave AOMs on thin SiN photonics platform, where the piezo-modulator layer can be above or below the SiN waveguides depending on design and process sequence during photonics chip fabrication. As SiN waveguides are compactly placed adjacent to one another with a proximity mostly dictated by the design rules, minimal additional chip area is required to produce larger and more efficient photonic spirals, while still maintaining the footprint of the photonic chip as compact.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.