Integrated laser and coupled waveguide
AssigneeTexas Instruments Incorporated
InventorsPhilip A. Congdon, Lily Y. Pang, Gary A. Evans
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A grating (461) coupling the output of a semiconductor laser (410) in a semiconductor waveguide to a dielectric waveguide (451) having a core (458) which may be efficiently butt-coupled to the core of an optical fiber (470); the laser and semiconductor waveguide, coupling grating, and dielectric waveguide are integrated on a single substrate. Further, multiple lasers (410, 420, 430, 440) with differing lasing frequencies may be integrated and their outputs grating coupled into a single dielectric waveguide (450) for wavelength division multiplexing.
Claims21
A microelectronic circuit, comprising:
- an integrated circuit, wherein said integrated circuit comprises:
- (a) a semiconductor laser having an optical axis, wherein said semiconductor laser includes a semiconductor waveguide comprised of a first layer, a second layer, and a third layer, wherein said layers are parallel to said optical axis;
- and
- (b) a dielectric waveguide comprised of a first dielectric cladding, a dielectric core, and a second dielectric cladding, wherein said dielectric waveguide has an optical axis that is located parallel to said laser's optical axis;
- and
- (c) a coupling grating between said laser and said dielectric waveguide.
A method of coupling an output of a semiconductor laser to an optical fiber, comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing a coupling grating between a semiconductor laser and a dielectric waveguide with a roughly square core, wherein said dielectric waveguide comprises a dielectric core and dielectric cladding, wherein said grating has a mechanical wave vector equal to the difference between a propagation vector of an active area of said semiconductor laser and a propagation vector of said dielectric waveguide;
- and
- (b) coupling said dielectric waveguide to an optical fiber.
A microelectronic circuit, comprising:
- an integrated circuit, wherein said integrated circuit comprises:
- (a) a plurality of semiconductor lasers, wherein each said laser has an optical axis and an output wavelength;
- wherein at least one said semiconductor laser includes a semiconductor waveguide comprised of a first layer, a second layer, and a third layer, wherein said layers are parallel to said laser's optical axis;
- (b) a dielectric waveguide comprised of a first dielectric cladding, a dielectric core, and a second dielectric cladding, wherein said dielectric waveguide has a branched structure comprising a plurality of waveguide branches, wherein at least one said branch has an optical axis that is located parallel to the optical axis of a corresponding laser;
- and
- (c) at least one coupling grating between said lasers and said waveguide branches.
A microelectronic circuit, comprising:
- an integrated circuit, wherein said integrated circuit comprises:
- (a) a semiconductor laser, wherein said semiconductor laser includes a semiconductor waveguide having an optical axis;
- (b) a low-index waveguide, wherein said low-index waveguide has an effective index of refraction near 1.5 and an optical axis, wherein, at least a portion of said low-index waveguide's optical axis is located approximately parallel to said semiconductor waveguide's optical axis;
- and
- (c) a coupling grating between said laser and said low-index waveguide.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.