United States Patent: Hochberg Et Al. (45) Date of Patent: Nov. 13, 2012

USOO831 1374B2
(12) United States Patent (10) Patent No.: US 8,311,374 B2

Hochberg et al. (45) Date of Patent: Nov. 13, 2012
(54) BEAM GENERATION AND STEERING WITH OTHER PUBLICATIONS
INTEGRATED OPTICAL CIRCUITS FOR
Liu, A. Jones, R., Liao, L., Samara-Rubio, D., Rubin, D., Cohen, O..
LIGHT DETECTION AND RANGING Nicolaescu, R. and Paniccia, M. “A high-speed silicon optical modu
(75) Inventors: Michael J. Hochberg, Seattle, WA (US); lator based on a metal-oxide semiconductor capacitor,” Nature vol.
Tom Baehr-Jones, Seattle, WA (US) 427, pp. 615-618 (2004).
Baehr-Jones, T., Penkov, B., Huang, J., Sullivan, P. Davies, J.,
Takayesu, J., Luo, J., Kim, T.-D., Dalton, L., Jen, A., Hochberg, M.
(73) Assignee: inversity of Washington, Seattle, WA and Scherer, A. "Nonlinear polymer-clad silicon slot waveguide
(US) modulator with a half wave voltage of 0.25 V.” Applied Physics
Letters 92, 163303 (2008).
(*) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this Laere, F. V. Claes, T. Schrauwen, J., Scheerlinck, S., Bogaerts, W.,
patent is extended or adjusted under 35 Taillaert, D., O'Faolain, L., Thourhout, D. V., Baets, R. “Compact
U.S.C. 154(b) by 420 days. Focusing Grating Couplers for Silicon-on-Insulator Integrated Cir
cuits.” IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, vol. 19, pp. 1919-1921
(21) Appl. No.: 12/511,201 (2007).
(22) Filed: Jul. 29, 2009 * cited by examiner
(65) Prior Publication Data Primary Examiner — Tina Wong
US 2010/O187442 A1 Jul. 29, 2010 (74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm — Milstein Zhang & Wu LLC;
Joseph B. Milstein
Related U.S. Application Data
(60) Provisional application No. 61/084,508, filed on Jul. (57) ABSTRACT
29, 2008.
An integrated photonic beam steering device includes a pla
(51) Int. Cl. nar photonic substrate. An input waveguide is configured to
GO2B 6/12 (2006.01) accept an electromagnetic energy from a source of electro
GO2B 6/26 (2006.01) magnetic energy radiation. A first splitteris configured to split
GO2B 6/42 (2006.01) the electromagnetic radiation into one or more paths. One or
(52) U.S. Cl. ............................... 3.85/14: 385724, 385727 more phased array rows are optically coupled to each of the
(58) Field of Classification Search ........................ None one or more paths. Each phased array row includes a row
See application file for complete search history. splitter configured to split the each of the one or more paths
into two or more row paths. Two or more phase modulators
(56) References Cited are each optically coupled respectively to each of the two or
more row paths. Two or more output couplers are optically
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS coupled respectively to each phase modulator output of the
6,061,170 A * 5/2000 Rice et al. ..................... 359,345 two or more phase modulators. The two or more output cou
6,122,423 A * 9/2000 You et al. ..... ... 385.49 plers are configured to radiate a steered photonic beam away
6,731,841 B1* 5/2004 Shirk et al. ....... 385/39 from the integrated photonic beam steering device.
2002.0054726 A1* 5, 2002 Fondeur et al. .. 385.15
2004/O125846 A1* 7/2004 Zediker et al. ... 372/SO
2006/0222293 A1* 10, 2006 Ellis ................................ 385727 21 Claims, 19 Drawing Sheets
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US 8,311,374 B2
1. 2
BEAM GENERATION AND STEERING WITH put couplers optically coupled respectively to each phase
INTEGRATED OPTICAL CIRCUITS FOR modulator output of the two or more phase modulators, each
LIGHT DETECTION AND RANGING of the two or more output couplers configured to emit elec
tromagnetic radiation away from the Substrate, the two or
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED more output couplers configured to radiate a steered photonic
APPLICATIONS beam away from the integrated photonic beam steering
device.
This application claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. In one embodiment, at least one of the two or more output
provisional patent application Ser. No. 61/084.508, filed Jul. couplers comprises a vertical coupler. In one embodiment,
29, 2008, which application is incorporated herein by refer 10 the vertical coupler comprises a grating coupler. In one
ence in its entirety. embodiment, the grating coupler comprises a collection of
curved trenches. In one embodiment, the grating coupler
FIELD OF THE INVENTION comprises a collection of scattering Sources. In one embodi
ment, the vertical coupler comprises an etched facet. In one
The invention relates to optical phased arrays in general 15 embodiment, the vertical coupler comprises an etched angle.
and more particularly to an optical phased array that employs In one embodiment, at least one of the two or more output
planar integrated structures. couplers comprises an edge coupler. In one embodiment, the
edge coupler comprises a cleaved and polished Surface. In one
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION embodiment, the edge coupler comprises a taper on an end of
a waveguide.
LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) and LADAR (La In one embodiment, the invention provides a stacked inte
Ser Detection and Ranging) are methods used to image and grated photonic beam steering device comprising a plurality
characterize remote objects. LIDAR and LADAR are referred of the integrated photonic beam steering devices and config
to interchangeably herein as “LIDAR”. In typical LIDAR ured to emit an electromagnetic beam having phase coherent
applications, an electromagnetic beam in the optical domain 25 optical modes, the Stacked integrated photonic beam steering
or mid to near infrared domain (about 10-400 THz) is swept device is configured to provide a beam that is steerable in two
through the field of view of a detector. orthogonal directions. In one embodiment, the two or more
Electronic countermeasures are not LIDAR perse, but use phase modulators comprise a free carrier based integrated
Some of the same concepts relating to beam steering. In some optical phase modulator. In one embodiment, the two or more
electronic countermeasures, a very strong directed infrared 30 phase modulators comprise a nonlinear polymer integrated
beam is used to confuse the electronics of a guidance or optical phase modulator. In one embodiment, the steered
homing system (e.g. of a heat-seeking missile) or to confuse photonic beam comprises at least one wavelength in wave
another hostile detection system by providing a number of length range of about 200 nm to 200 um.
false images. Some experiments have been performed using In one embodiment, the invention provides an electronic
optical phased arrays as emitters for various applications. 35 countermeasure system comprising the integrated photonic
However previous implementations, particularly those using beam steering device, wherein the steered photonic beam
fiber based delay lines, have been extremely expensive and comprises an electronic countermeasure signal. In one
cumbersome. embodiment, the electronic countermeasure signal is config
In the prior art, any related Sweeping action, Such as beam ured to confuse a missile guidance system. In one embodi
steering of the electromagnetic beam, has typically been 40 ment, the electronic countermeasure signal is configured to
accomplished by a mechanical fixture of some sort. Sweeping confuse a selected one of detection and Surveillance system.
a beam through a range of angles is most commonly done In one embodiment, the invention provides a integrated
today through mechanical gimbal assemblies, or through photonic beam steering system that comprises a source of
mechanically steered mirrors. electromagnetic radiation having a wavelength range in a
There is a need for an efficient and cost effective optical 45 wavelength range of about 200 nm to 200 um; and an inte
phased array device. grated photonic beam steering device coupled to the source of
electromagnetic radiation and configured to transmit a phase
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION arrayed optical electromagnetic signal Suitable for a selected
one of LIDAR and LADAR. In one embodiment, the inte
According to one aspect, the invention relates to an inte 50 grated photonic beam steering system further comprises a
grated photonic beam steering device. The integrated photo detector configured to receive a return optical electromag
nic beam steering device comprises a planar photonic Sub netic signal, configured to provide phase detection, and con
strate; an input waveguide disposed on the planar photonic figured to measure a delay between the transmitted phase
Substrate and configured to accept electromagnetic energy arrayed optical electromagnetic signal and the received return
from a source of electromagnetic energy radiation; a first 55 optical electromagnetic signal. and a system output config
splitter disposed on the planar photonic Substrate and opti ured to provide a measure of the delay. In one embodiment,
cally coupled to the input waveguide and configured to split the detector is phase sensitive. In one embodiment, the detec
the electromagnetic radiation into one or more paths; and one tor is disposed on the planar Substrate.
or more phased array rows disposed on the planar photonic The foregoing and other objects, aspects, features, and
Substrate and optically coupled to each of the one or more 60 advantages of the invention will become more apparent from
paths. Each phased array row comprises a row splitter con the following description and from the claims.
figured to split the each of the one or more paths into two or
more row paths; two or more phase modulators, each of the BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
two or more phase modulators optically coupled respectively
via a row waveguide to each of the two or more row paths, 65 The objects and features of the invention can be better
each of the two or more phase modulators having a phase understood with reference to the drawings described below,
modulator output. The device also includes two or more out and the claims. The drawings are not necessarily to scale,
US 8,311,374 B2
3 4
emphasis instead generally being placed upon illustrating the FIG. 17A is a diagram of the modulator layout, according
principles of the invention. In the drawings, like numerals are to principles of the invention.
used to indicate like parts throughout the various views. FIG. 17B and FIG. 17C are two SEM micrographs of
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing dispersion plots for the fun modulators constructed according to principles of the inven
damental mode (EX polarized) of exemplary clad and unclad 5 tion, that show the slotted, segmented region, as well as the
waveguides, shown as effective index vs. wavelength in Lum. location where the silicon makes contact with the electrical
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an SEM image of an exem layer.
plary ring resonator. FIG. 18 is a diagram that shows a transmission spectrum of
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the normalized transmission an electroded slot waveguide resonator with a gap of 70 nm.
of light through the system (and past the ring) in dB, as a 10 Fiber to fiber insertion loss is plotted in dB, against the test
function of wavelength detuning in nm for both clad and laser wavelength in nm.
unclad waveguides, shifted to overlay resonance peaks. FIG. 19 shows a diagram of a top view of one exemplary
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the device layout of an exem embodiment of a planar integrated photonic circuit beam
plary slot waveguide. steering device.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the measured transmission 15 FIG. 20 shows a side view of an integrated photonic beam
spectrum in dB vs. laser wavelength in nm past a high quality steering device radiating a steered photonic beam.
factor slot ring resonator. FIG. 21 shows a diagram of a vertical coupling section of a
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the detail of the peak of the grating coupler based beam steering array.
transmission spectrum near 1488 nm. FIG. 22A shows a top and side view of an angle etched
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a shallow angle SEM view of (etched angle) vertical scattering site.
a typical silicon-on-insulator ring resonator and waveguide FIG. 22B shows a top and side view of an etched facet
having a sidewall roughness on the order of 10 nm. Vertical scattering site.
FIG. 8 is a diagram of a slot ring resonator directional FIG. 23 shows a diagram of one embodiment of an exem
coupler region, and the associated input waveguide. plary single-layer edge coupled beam steerable device.
FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an exemplary high-index 25 FIG. 24 shows a side view of one exemplary stack of edge
segmented waveguide structures, which in the embodiment coupled beam steering chips.
shown comprises a central waveguide portion with fingers or
ridges Sticking out to the sides. DETAILED DESCRIPTION
FIG. 10A is a diagram that shows a dispersion diagram of
both a segmented waveguide and the normal, unsegmented 30 We now describe high index contrast waveguides that are
waveguide, taken on a plane parallel to the Substrate that on a useful to concentrate light in order to enhance nonlinear opti
Z plane intersects the middle of a segment. cal effects in various materials so that such effects can be
FIG. 10B is a diagram that shows modal patterns of the employed to manipulate light (or more generally electromag
Bloch mode, with contours of El plotted, starting at 10% of netic radiation) at low power levels, as compared to conven
the max value and with contour increments of 10%. 35 tional systems and methods that employ nonlinear optical
FIG. 10C is a diagram that shows a plot of modal patterns materials. The manipulation of electromagnetic radiation or
over four periods of a segmented waveguide on a horizontal light can be useful to provide a variety of components that
plane that intersects the silicon layer halfway through. perform operations on light Such as rectification, modulation,
FIG. 11 is a diagram that shows an exemplary electrical filtering, and logic operations in a manner analogous to the
isolator that was constructed and tested, and which provided 40 same operations which are provided using electronic devices
both a transition from a standard to a slotted waveguide and operating on electrical signals. For example, an input light
electrical isolation between the two sides of the slot wave to be processed is impressed onto the component. The
waveguide. light wave has at least one parameter characterizing the light
FIG. 12 is a four panel diagram that shows details of one wave, such as one of an intensity, a polarization, a frequency,
embodiment of an optical modulator device, including the 45 a wavelength, and a duration (e.g., a pulse length, or in the
geometry of the photodetectors and filters, and including a case of continuous wave light, an effectively infinite dura
cross section of the slotted waveguide. tion). After the input light wave is processed (or interacts with
FIG. 13 shows a diagram of a Mach-Zehnder modulator the waveguide and the clad nonlinear optical material adja
with a conventional electrode geometry in top-down view, cent to the waveguide when present), an output signal is
including top contact, waveguide, and bottom contact layers. 50 observed. In a circumstance where the input signal has been
FIG. 14A shows the static voltage potential field distribu processed, the output signal has at least one parameter that is
tion due to charging the two electrodes. different from at least one parameter characterizing the input
FIG. 14B shows the electric field due to the potential dis light wave, including possibly an electrical output signal
tribution. EI is plotted in increments of 10%. when the input light wave had no electrical signal component
FIG. 15A shows a cross section of the segmented, slotted 55 (e.g., optical rectification).
waveguide, with the El field plotted in increments of 10% of We have developed a set of tools for concentrating light to
max value. a high degree by using silicon or other high index contrast
FIG. 15B shows a similar plot for the unsegmented waveguides, and we have fabricated devices that demonstrate
waveguide. Some of the many applications that can be contemplated when
FIG. 15C shows a horizontal cross section of the seg 60 Such nonlinear materials are exploited. In particular, by uti
mented, slotted waveguide in which Re(Ex) is plotted in lizing split waveguides, we are able to greatly enhance the
increments of 20% of max. optical fields in the cladding of a tightly confined waveguide,
FIG.16A is a diagram of the silicon slot waveguide used in without greatly enhancing the optical losses of the same
the Mach-Zehnder modulator, according to principles of the waveguide. Combining the high field concentrations avail
invention. 65 able from the split waveguides with the high nonlinear activ
FIG. 16B is an SEM micrograph of a slot waveguide, ity of nonlinear optical polymers permits the development of
according to principles of the invention. nonlinear optical devices operating at much lower optical
US 8,311,374 B2
5 6
input power levels than are possible with conventional free waveguide, as compared to 20% for a single-mode 200-nm
space or chip based systems. We have demonstrated four thick silicon waveguide, and 10% for a single-mode 300-nm
wave mixing (which is based upon X), as well as optical thick silicon waveguide.
rectification (based on X), in such waveguides. Using these In one embodiment, wafer geometries were selected that
waveguides it is possible to decrease the power levels needed minimize the thickness of the SOI waveguiding layer as well
to observe significant nonlinearities to the point where, by as the buried oxide, but still yield low loss waveguides and
contrast with conventional nonlinear optics, it can be done bends. A number of different waveguide widths were com
with non-pulsed, continuous wave lasers. pared by finite difference based mode solving. The geometry
Chi2 (x) and Chi3 (x) based optical effects can be used in used in the exemplary embodiment comprises a 500-nm-wide
particular to build on-chip optical parametric oscillator 10 waveguide formed in a 120-nm-thick silicon layer, atop a 1.4
(“OPO') systems, where two input wavelengths can be mixed um oxide layer, which rests on a silicon handle, such as a
together to produce sum and difference frequencies. These silicon wafer as a Substrate. Such a configuration Supports
frequencies can be either higher or lower than the input fre only a single well-contained optical mode for near infrared
wavelengths. The dispersion characteristics are shown in
quencies, and can be made tunable. These effects work for 15 FIG. 1 for both unclad and PMMA-clad waveguides. Our
frequencies from the ultraviolet and X-ray regime all the way interest in unclad structures stems from the ease of fabrica
out into the far infrared and microwave, and in fact can work tion, as detailed in the following, as well as the flexibility an
down to DC in some cases, particularly with optical rectifi open air waveguide may provide for certain applications.
cation. These modes were determined by using a finite difference
The material of which the high index waveguide is made based Hermitian eigensolver. It is possible to calculate the
can be any material having a high index that is reasonably loss directly from the mode pattern with an analytic method
transparent at the wavelengths of interest. This can include valid in the low-loss limit. The waveguide loss at 1.55 um
but is not limited to silicon, gallium nitride, indium phos calculated in such a fashion is approximately -4.5 dB. This
phide, indium gallium nitride, gallium phosphide, diamond, loss figure was in agreement with the extrapolated results of
sapphire, or the various quaternary III/V and II/VI materials 25 FDTD simulation.
Such as aluminum gallium arsenide phosphide. III/V denotes Because a loss of -4 dB/cm is attributed to substrate leak
materials having at least one element from column III of the age, the waveguide loss can be improved by the addition of a
periodic table of elements (or an element that is stable as a cladding, which tends to pull the mode upwards. This notion
positive trivalention) and at least one element from column V is Supported by the measured decrease in waveguide loss
(or an element that is stable as a negative trivalent ion). 30 upon the addition of a PMMA cladding. It can be shown that
Examples of III/V compounds include BN, ALP. GaAs and the Substrate leakage loss attenuation coefficient is nearly
InP. II/VI denotes materials having at least one element from
proportional to
column II of the periodic table of elements (oran element that evn, -nkoA
is stable as a positive divalent ion) and at least one element 35 ifko is the free space wave number, n is the effective index
from column VI (or an element that is stable as a negative of the mode, n is the effective index of the oxide layer, and A
divalent ion). Examples of II/VI compounds include MgO, is the thickness of the oxide. In the present case, the e-folding
CdS, ZnSe and HgTe. depth of the above-mentioned function turns out to be 180
We present successively the mechanical structure of exem nm, which explains why the Substrate leakage is so high.
plary embodiments of high index waveguides, exemplary 40 SOI material with a top silicon layer of approximately 120
embodiments of cladding materials having large nonlinear nm and 1.4 um bottom oxide was obtained in the form of 200
constants x and X and their incorporation into devices hav mm wafers, which were manually cleaved, and dehydrated
ing high index waveguides, and some exemplary results for 5 min at 180° C. The wafers were then cleaned with a
observed on some of the fabricated devices that are described. spin/rinse process in acetone and isopropanol, and air dried.
Exemplary High Index Waveguide Structures 45 HSQ electron beam resist from Dow Corning Corporation
High-Q Ring Resonators in Thin Silicon-on-Insulator was spin coated at 1000 rpm and baked for 4 min at 180° C.
Resonators comprising high-Q microrings were fabricated The coated samples were exposed with a Leica EBPG-5000+
from thin silicon-on-insulator (SOI) layers. Measured Qval electron beam writer at 100 kV. The devices were exposed at
ues of 45,000 were observed in these rings, which were then a dose of 4000 uc/cm, and the samples were developed in
improved to 57,000 by adding a PMMA cladding. Various 50 MIF-300 TMAH developer and rinsed with water and isopro
waveguide designs were calculated, and the waveguide losses panol. The patterned SOI devices were subsequently etched
were analyzed. by using an Oxford Plasmalab 100 ICP-RIE within 12 mTorr
Microring resonator structures as laser Sources and as opti of chlorine, with 800 W of ICP power and 50 W of forward
cal filter elements for dense wavelength division multiplexing power applied for 33 s. Microfabricated devices such as the
systems have been studied in the past. The silicon-on-insula 55 one shown in FIG. 2 were tested by mounting the dies onto an
tor (SOI) structure described here is particularly advanta optical stage system with a single-mode optical fiber array. A
geous. It has low waveguide loss. One can extrapolate an tunable laser was used first to align each device, and then
uncoupled Q value of 94,000 and a waveguide loss of 7.1 swept in order to determine the frequency domain behavior of
dB/cm in the unclad case, and -6.6 dB/cm in the PMMA clad each of the devices. Light was coupled into the waveguides
case, from the respective measured Q values of 45,000 and 60 from a fiber mode by the use of grating couplers. Subse
57,000. Although higher Q values have been obtained for quently the devices were spin-coated with 11%950KPMMA
optical microcavities, we believe that our geometry has the in Anisole, at 2000 rpm, baked for 20 min at 180° C., and
highest Q for a resonator based on a single mode silicon retested.
waveguide. It is also noteworthy that a large amount of power The theoretical development of the expected behavior of a
appears outside the core silicon waveguide, which may be 65 ring resonator system has been described in the technical
important in some applications. The modes that are described literature. In the present case the dispersion of the waveguide
herein have approximately 57% of the power outside the compels the addition of a dispersive term to the peak width.
US 8,311,374 B2
7 8
We take Wo to be the free space wavelength of a resonance ments, the waveguide can be a closed loop. Such as at least one
frequency of the system, no to be the index of refraction at this ring or at least one oval shaped endless stripe. As has been
wavelength, (on/öw), the derivative of n with respect to explained, optical energy can be provided to Such a closed
taken at Wo. L to be the optical path length around the ring, C. loop, for example with an input waveguide.
to be the optical amplitude attenuation factor due to loss in a One can form high quality factor ring or oval resonators in
single trip around the ring, and finally t to be the optical SOI. In these SOI waveguides, vertical confinement of light is
amplitude attenuation factor due to traveling past the cou obtained from the index contrast between the silicon core and
pling region. In the limit of a high Q, and thus (1-C)<1 and the low index cladding (or air) and the buried silicon dioxide
(1-t)<1, layer, whereas lateral confinement can be obtained by litho
we have 10 graphically patterning the silicon. The majority of the light
tends to be guided within the silicon core in Such waveguide.
Although the high refractive index contrast between silicon
The waveguide mode was coupled into a ring resonator and its oxide provide excellent optical confinement, guiding
from an adjacent waveguide. As shown in FIG. 2, the adjacent within the silicon core can be problematic for some applica
waveguide can in some embodiments be a linear waveguide. 15 tions. In particular, at very high optical intensities, two-pho
The strength of coupling can then be lithographically con ton absorption in the silicon may lead to high optical losses.
trolled by adjusting the distance between the waveguide and Moreover, it is often desirable to maximize the field intensity
the ring. This ring was fabricated with a radius of 30 um, a overlap between the optical waveguide mode and a lower
waveguide width of 500 nm, and a separation between ring index cladding material when that cladding is optically active
and waveguide of 330 nm. For the clad ring presented, the and provides electro-optic modulation or chemical sensing.
measured Q is 45,000, and the extinction ratio is -22 dB, for One solution to these problems involves using a slot
the resonance peak at 1512.56 mm. The PMMA clad ring had waveguide geometry. In a slot waveguide, two silicon Stripes
a similar geometry, and achieved a Q of 57,000, but with an are formed by etching an SOI slab, and are separated by a
extinction ratio of -15.5 dB. Typical observed transmission Small distance. In one embodiment, the separation is approxi
spectra are shown in FIG. 3. The typical amount of optical 25 mately 60 nm. The optical mode in such a structure tends to
power in the waveguide directly coupling into the resonator propagate mainly within the center of the waveguide. In the
was about 0.03 mW. A dependence of the spectrum on this case of primarily horizontal polarization, the discontinuity
power was not observed, to within an order of magnitude. condition at the cladding-silicon interface leads to a large
From the mode-solving results for the unclad waveguides, concentration of the optical field in the slot or trench between
we have (ön/ö, )(1.512)=-1.182 um', and n() =1.512)= 30 the two stripes. One can predict that the electric field intensity
1.688. Using this result and the earlier relations, the would be approximately 10 VP V/m where P is the input
waveguide loss can be calculated from the measured Qvalue. power in watts. One design uses a 120 nm silicon on insulator
Specifically, an extinction that is at least-22 dB indicates that layer and 300 nm wide silicon strips on top of a 1.4 um thick
a critically coupled Q in this geometry is greater than 38,500, buried oxide layer, which is in turn deposited on a silicon
which then implies a waveguide loss of less than -7.1 dB/cm. 35 substrate. Various widths for the central slot were fabricated
In similar fashion, the PMMA clad waveguide resonator with to provide test devices with 50, 60 and 70 nm gaps. Slots
a Q of 57,000 but only -15.5 dB of extinction allows a worst larger than 70 nm have also been fabricated and were shown
case waveguide loss of -6.6 dB/cm. This also implies an to work well.
intrinsic Q of 77,000 for the unclad resonator, and an intrinsic In the 1.4-1.6 um wavelength regime, the waveguide geom
Q of 94,000 for the PMMA clad resonator. 40 etry is single mode, and a well-contained optical mode is
These devices have a slight temperature dependence. Spe supported between the two silicon waveguide slabs. There is
cifically, the resonance peak shifts correspondingly with the Some loss that Such an optical mode will experience even in
change in the refractive index of silicon with temperature, the absence of any scattering loss or material absorption due
moving over 2 nm as temperature shifts from 18 to 65°C. The to leakage of light into the silicon substrate. The substrate loss
Q rises with higher temperatures slightly, from 33 k at 18°C. 45 can be estimated semi-analytically via perturbation theory,
to 37 k on one device studied. This shift can probably be and ranges from approximately -0.15 dB/cm at 1.49 um to
explained entirely by the dependence of Q on the effective about -0.6 dB/cm at 1.55um for the SOI wafer geometry of
index. the present embodiment.
High-Q Optical Resonators in Silicon-on-Insulator Based Oval resonators were fabricated by patterning the slot
Slot Waveguides 50 waveguides into an oval shape. An oval resonator geometry
We now describe the design, fabrication and characteriza was selected in preference to the more conventional circular
tion of high Q oval resonators based on slot waveguide geom shape to enable a longer coupling distance between the oval
etries in thin silicon on insulator material. Optical quality and the external coupling waveguide or input waveguide. See
factors of up to 27,000 were measured in such filters, and we FIG. 4. Slots were introduced into both the oval and external
estimate losses of -10 dB/cm in the slotted waveguides on the 55 coupling waveguides.
basis of our resonator measurements. Such waveguides Predicting coupling strength and waveguide losses for Such
enable the concentration of light to very high optical fields devices is not easy. Many different coupling lengths and ring
within nano-scale dimensions, and show promise for the con to input waveguide separations were fabricated and tested. It
finement of light in low-index material with potential appli is well known that the most distinct resonance behavior
cations for optical modulation, nonlinear optics and optical 60 would be observed for critically coupled resonators, in which
sensing. As will be appreciated, the precise geometry of a the coupling strength roughly matches the round trip loss in
resonator (or other kinds of devices) is frequently a matter of the ring.
design, and the geometry can be varied based on Such con An analytic expression for the quality factor of a ring
siderations as length of waveguide, area of a chip, and resonator was presented in equation (1) hereinabove.
required interaction (or required non-interaction). Such as 65 Also, the free spectral range can be calculated via:
coupling (or avoiding coupling) with other waveguide struc
tures that are presentina device or on a chip. In some embodi
US 8,311,374 B2
10
Here, L is the round trip length in the ring, and no andwo are using the fingers or ridges that Stick off the sides of the
the index of refraction, and the wavelength at resonance, waveguide. This structure provides a way to form both elec
respectively. The derivative of the effective index with respect trical contacts to waveguides and structures that would pro
to the wavelength at the resonance peak is given by (Ön/Öw). vide electrical isolation with low optical loss. Through an
and it can be shown that this term is roughly equal to -0.6 iterative process involving a combination of optical design
um' from the 1.4-1.6 um spectral range for the slot using a Hermetian Bloch mode eigensolver and fabrication of
waveguides studied here. actual structures, it was found that (non-slotted) segmented
We have observed a quality factor of 27,000 in a device waveguide structures could be constructed in 120 nm thick
fabricated with a slot size of 70 nm, a ring to input waveguide SOI. Waveguide losses as small as -16 dB per centimeter
edge to edge separation of 650 nm, and a coupling distance of 10
were observed, and insertion losses as smallas -0.16 dB were
1.6 um. The radius of the circular part of the slotted oval was shown from standard silicon waveguides.
50 um. This resonance was observed near 1488 nm, and the The segmented waveguide structure can also be modeled
resonance peak had an extinction ratio of 4.5 dB. FIG. 5 as regards its expected properties, which can then be com
shows the measured transmission spectrum past the ring,
normalized for the input coupler baseline efficiency of our 15 pared to actual results. FIG. 10A is a diagram that shows a
test system. FIG. 6 shows the details of one peak in the dispersion diagram of both a segmented waveguide and the
vicinity of 1488 nm. Because the extinction ratio at the reso normal, unsegmented waveguide, taken on a plane parallel to
nance peak was not very large in this case, it was not possible the substrate that on a Z plane that intersects the middle of a
to accurately determine waveguide losses from this device. segment. FIG. 10B is a diagram that shows modal patterns of
By measuring many devices with different geometries, we the Bloch mode, with contours of El plotted, starting at 10%
obtained data on resonators with higher extinction ratios that of the max value and with contour increments of 10%. FIG.
approached critical coupling. One such device was a 50 um 10C is a diagram that shows a plot of modal patterns over four
radius slotted ring resonator with a 60 nm waveguide gap, a periods of a segmented waveguide on a horizontal plane that
ring to input waveguide spacing of 550 nm and coupling intersects the silicon layer halfway through.
length of 1.6 m. In this device, a Q of 23,400 was observed 25 By utilizing the same type of design methodology as was
near 1523 nm, with an on-resonance extinction of 14.7 dB. used for the segmented waveguides, one is able to able to
Since this resonance is nearly critically coupled, the construct structures that provide electrical isolation without
waveguide loss can be estimated using equation (1) as -10 Substantial optical loss. FIG. 11 is a diagram that shows an
dB/cm. We can also use equation (2) to further validate our exemplary electrical isolator that was constructed and tested,
theoretical picture of the ring resonator. The observed free 30 and which provided both a transition from a standard to a
spectral range of this resonator was 2.74 nm, while equation slotted waveguide and electrical isolation between the two
(2) predicts 2.9 mm. This discrepancy is most likely due to sides of the slot waveguide. Such structures were shown to
Small differences in the fabricated dimensions as compared to have losses on the order of 0.5 dB.
those for which the numerical solutions were obtained. Optical Modulation and Detection in Slotted Silicon
To further validate the waveguide loss result, several 35 Waveguides
waveguide loss calibration loops were fabricated with vary In this example, we describe a system and process that
ing lengths of the slot waveguide, ranging from 200 to 8200 provide low power optical detection and modulation in a
um in length. A total of five center slot waveguide devices slotted waveguide geometry filled with nonlinear electro
were studied for each of the 50, 60 and 70 nm slot widths. optic polymers and present examples that demonstrate Such
Linear regression analysis on the peak transmission of each 40 methods. The nanoscale confinement of the optical mode,
series yielded waveguide loss figures of 11.6+3.5 dB/cm for combined with its close proximity to electrical contacts,
the 50 nm center waveguide, 7.7+2.3 dB/cm for the 60 nm enables the direct conversion of optical energy to electrical
center waveguide, and 8.1+1.1 dB/cm for the 70 nm center energy, without external bias, via optical rectification, and
waveguide. These figures are in agreement with the loss esti also enhances electro-optic modulation. We demonstrate this
mated from the oval resonator. Since the theoretical loss due 45 process for power levels in the Sub-milliwatt regime, as com
to Substrate leakage is much lower than this, it is clear that a pared to the kilowatt regime in which optical nonlinear effects
great deal of loss is due to Surface roughness and possibly are typically observed at short length scales. The results pre
material absorption. It is believed that engineering improve sented show that a new class of detectors based on nonlinear
ments will decrease this loss further. For sensing and modu optics can be fabricated and operated.
lation applications as well as use in nonlinear optics, the high 50 Waveguide-based integrated optics in silicon provide sys
optical field concentration that can be Supported in the clad tems and methods for concentrating and guiding light at the
ding material of the slotted waveguide geometry should be nanoscale. The high index contrast between silicon and com
very advantageous when compared to more conventional mon cladding materials enables extremely compact
waveguides. waveguides with very high mode field concentrations, and
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a shallow angle SEM view of 55 allows the use of established CMOS fabrication techniques to
a silicon-on-insulator ring resonator and waveguide having a define photonic integrated circuits. By using slotted
sidewall roughness on the order of 10 nm. In the exemplary waveguides, it is possible to further concentrate a large frac
waveguide shown in FIG. 7, the silicon-insulator bond has tion of the guided mode into a gap within the center of a
been decorated with a brief buffered oxide etch. FIG. 8 is a silicon waveguide. This geometry greatly magnifies the elec
diagram of a slot ring resonator directional coupler region, 60 tric field associated with the optical mode, resulting in electric
and the associated input waveguide. fields of at least (or in excess of) 10° V/m for continuous
Other variations on the geometry of waveguides are pos wave, Sub-milliwatt optical signals. Moreover, since the slot
sible. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an exemplary high-index ted geometry comprises two silicon Strips which can be elec
segmented waveguide structures, which in the embodiment trically isolated, a convenient mechanism for electro-optic
shown comprises a central waveguide portion with fingers or 65 interaction is provided. Such waveguides can be fabricated
ridges sticking out to the sides. With the light localized in the with low loss. We have previously described systems that
center in a Bloch mode, electrical contact can be established provide losses below -10 dB/cm.
US 8,311,374 B2
11 12
In the present example, we exploit both the high intensity shows a cross section of the device geometry with optical
of the optical field and the close proximity of the electrodes mode Superimposed on a waveguide. In FIG. 12A, the optical
for several purposes. First, we demonstrate detection of opti mode was solved using a finite-difference based Hermetian
cal signals via direct conversion to electrical energy by means Eigensolver, such as that described by A. Taflove, Computa
of nonlinear optical rectification. An exemplary device com tional Electrodynamics, (Artech House, Boston. Mass.,
prises a ring resonator with an electro-optic polymer based X 1995), and has an effective index of approximately 1.85 at
material deposited as a cladding. Inside the slot, the high 1500 nm. Most of the electric field is parallel to the plane of
optical field intensity creates a standing DC field, which the chip, and it is possible to contact both sides of the slot in
creates a virtual Voltage source between the two silicon elec a slotted ring resonator, as shown in FIG. 12B, which shows
trodes, resulting in a measurable current flow, in the absence 10
a SEM image of the resonator electrical contacts. Electrically
of any external electrical bias. Though optical rectification isolated contacts between the silicon rails defining the slotted
has been observed in electro-optic polymers, typically instan waveguide introduce only about 0.1 dB of optical loss. FIG.
taneous optical powers on the order of 1 kW are needed for 12C shows the logical layout of device, Superimposed on a
observable conversion efficiencies, often achieved with
pulsed lasers. The exemplary embodiment provides measur 15 SEM image of a device. FIG. 12C details the layout of a
able conversion with less than 1 mW of non-pulsed input, complete slotted ring resonator, with two contact pads con
obtained from a standard, low power tunable laser operating nected to the outer half of the ring, and two pads electrically
near 1500 nm. connected to the inner half of the ring. A shunt resistor pro
In one embodiment, systems and methods of the invention vides a means of confirming electrical contact, and typical
provide standard Pockels effect based modulation, which is pad-to-pad and pad-to-ring resistances range from 1 MS2 to 5
similarly enhanced by means of the very Small scale of our MS2. FIG. 12D displays a typical electrically contacted slot
device. The close proximity of the electrodes, and ready over ted ring as presently described. FIG. 12D is an image of the
lap with the optical mode, causes an external Voltage to pro ring and the electrical contact structures.
duce a far larger effective electric modulation field, and there Measurements were performed with single-modepolariza
fore refractive index shift, than would be obtained through 25 tion maintaining input and output fibers, grating coupled to
conventional waveguide designs. In one embodiment, the slotted waveguides with an insertion loss of approximately 8
modulation and refractive index shift is provided by tuning dB. Optical signal was provided from an Agilent 81680A
the resonance frequencies of a slot waveguide ring resonator. tunable laser and in Some cases an erbium doped fiberampli
Device Fabrication fier (“EDFA) from Keopsys Corporation. A continuous opti
Waveguide Fabrication 30 cal signal inserted into a poled polymer ring results in a
The devices described in this example were fabricated in measurable current established between the two pads, which
electronic grade silicon-on-insulator (SOI) with a top layer are electrically connected through a pica-Ammeter. In the
thickness of 110 nm and an oxide thickness of 1.3 microns. most sensitive device, a DC current of ~1.3 nA was observed,
The silicon layer is Subsequently doped to approximately indicating an electrical output power of ~10 of the optical
10' Phosphorous atoms/cm, yielding resistivities after 35 input power (5x10°W of output for approximately 0.5 mW
dopant activation of about 0.025 ohm-cm. Electro-optic coupled into the chip). Control devices, in which PMMA or
(“EO) polymers were then spin-deposited onto the un-poled EO material was substituted, show no photocurrent.
waveguide structures and Subsequently poled by using a high The fact that there is no external bias (or indeed any energy
field applied across the slot in the waveguide. Source) other than the optical signal applied to the system of
Lithography was performed using a Leica EBPG 5000+ 40 this embodiment demonstrates conclusively that power is
electron beam system at 100 kV. Prior to lithography, the being converted from the optical signal. To establish that the
samples were manually cleaved, cleaned in acetone and iso conversion mechanism is actually optical rectification, we
propanol, baked for 20 minutes at 180 C, coated with 2 performed a number of additional measurements. A steady
percent HSQ resist from Dow Corning Corporation, spun for bias was applied to the chip for several minutes, as shown in
two minutes at 1000 rpm, and baked for an additional 20 45 Table 1A. A substantial change in the photoresponse of the
minutes. The samples were exposed at 5 nm step size, at 3500 device was observed. This change depends on the polarity of
uC/cm. The samples were developed in AZ 300 TMAH the bias voltage, consistent with the expected influence of
developer for 3 minutes, and etched on an Oxford Instruments repoling of the device in-place at room temperature. Specifi
PLC Plasmalab 100 with chlorine at 80 sccm, forward power cally, if the external bias was applied opposing the original
at 50 W, ICP power at 800 W, 12 mTorr pressure, and 33 50 poling direction, conversion efficiency generally decreased,
seconds of etch time. The samples were then implanted with while an external bias in the direction of the original poling
phosphorous at normal incidence, 3 OkeV energy, and 1x10' field increased conversion efficiency.
ions/cm density. The sample was annealed under a vacuum at
950 C in a Jipilec Jetstar rapid thermal annealer. The samples TABLE 1
were dipped in buffered hydrofluoric acid in order to remove 55
the remnants of electron beam resist from the surface. Polling Results
After initial optical testing, the samples were coated with Part A:
YLD 124 electro-optic polymer, and in one case with den
drimer-based electro-optic material. The samples were stored Action New Steady State Current (6 dBm input)
under a vacuum at all times when they were not being tested, 60
Initial State -5.7 pA
in order to reduce the chances of any degradation. +10 V for 2 minutes 0 pA
Measurement Results -10 V for 2 minutes -7.1 p.A
Optical Rectification Based Detection +10 V for 2 minutes -4.4 p.A
+10 V for 4 minutes -6.1 p.A
FIG. 12 is a four panel diagram that shows details of one -10 V for 4 minutes -4.5 p.A
embodiment of an optical modulator device, including the 65 -10 V for 2 minutes -14.8 p.A
geometry of the photodetectors and filters, and including a
cross section of the slotted waveguide. Panel A of FIG. 12
US 8,311,374 B2
13 14
TABLE 1-continued case as much as 0 dBm might be circulating in a resonator on
resonance. This implies a peak electric field due to the optical
Polling Results signal of approximately 3.1x10° V/m. The induced static
Part B: nonlinear polarization field is then nearly 1000 V/m, which
amounts to a Voltage drop of 14x10 Vacross a 140 nm gap.
Current Polarity of If this Voltage is assumed to be perfectly maintained, and the
Device Action Optical Rectification
load resistance is assumed to be 5 MS2, then 28 p.A would be
1 Positive Poling Positive generated, about a factor of 100 less than is observed in the
1 Thermal Cycling to Rapid fluctuation, did largest measurement made, but within a factor of 20 of the
poling temperature with
no voltage
not settle 10 typical measurement of 352 p.A for 6 dBm of input. Signifi
1 Negative Poling Negative cantly, because the generated current is quadratic in E, it is
2 Negative Poling Negative clear that the current will be linearly proportional to the input
2 Thermal Cycling to None observable intensity. This is in accordance with our observations. The
Poling temperature with best results for optical rectification were obtained with YLD
no voltage 15 124/APC polymer, whereas our best Pockels Effect results
2 Positive Poling Negative
3 Negative Poling Negative were obtained with the dendrimer materials.
4 Positive Poling Positive Significantly, the sign of the output current matches that
5 Negative Poling Negative which would be predicted by nonlinear optical rectification,
as discussed above. Specifically, since positive current ema
To further understand the photo-conversion mechanism, 5 nates from the positive terminal, the rectified Efield has a sign
EO detection devices were poled with both positive and nega reversed from the X and the polling E field. It is well estab
tive polarities, thus reversing the direction of the relative y lished that they direction tends to align with the direction of
tensors. For these materials, the direction of X is known to the polling E field. Because of this, the rectified field acting as
align with the polling E field direction, and we have verified a Voltage source will produce an effective positive terminal at
25 the terminal that had the positive polling Voltage.
this through Pockels' effect measurements. In all but one We do not yet fully understand the current generation
case, we observe that the polarity of the generated potential is mechanism. In particular, it is not clear what provides the
the same as that used in poling, and the +V terminal during mechanism for charge transport across the gap. The APC
poling acts as the -V terminal in spontaneous current genera material in which the nonlinear polymer is hosted is insulat
tion, as shown in Table 1B. Furthermore, the polarity of the 30 ing, and though it does exhibit the photoconductivity effect
current is consistent with a virtual Voltage source induced due to visible light, it is unclear whether it can for near
through optical rectification. It was observed that these infrared radiation. Photoconductivity due to second harmonic
devices decay significantly over the course of testing, and that generation may play a role in this effect. It is certainly the
in one case the polarity of the output current was even case, however, that current flows through this gap; that is the
observed to spontaneously Switch after extensive testing. 35 only region in the entire system where an electromotive force
However, the initial behavior of the devices after polling exists. Also, photoconductivity alone is not adequate to
seems largely correlated to they direction. explain the reversal of the current coming from the detector
Part A of Table 1 shows the dependence of the steady state devices when the poling direction is reversed, nor the conver
observed current after room temperature biasing with various sion of the optical input into directed current in general. The
Voltage polarities for one device. The device was originally 40 only mechanism to our knowledge that adequately explains
polled with a ~12 V bias, though at 110 C. With one excep this data is optical rectification.
tion, applying a Voltage in the direction of the original polling If we assume that it will be possible to achieve a 10-fold
Voltage enhances current conversion efficiencies, while improvement in the Q’s of the resonators, while still getting
applying a Voltage against the direction of the polling Voltage more than 10 dB of extinction, then the intensity circulating in
reduces the current conversion efficiencies. It should be noted 45 such a ring would be about 13 dB up from the intensity of the
that the power coupled on-chip in these measurements was input wave. By comparison, with a Q of about 1000 and high
less than 1 mW due to coupler loss. extinction, the peak circulating intensity is about the same as
Part B of Table 1 shows the behavior of several different the intensity in the input waveguide. Therefore, it is reason
devices immediately after thermal polling or cycling without able to expect that it will be possible to get at least 10 dB of
Voltage. Measurements were taken sequentially from top to 50 improvement in the circulating intensity, and thus in the con
bottom for a given device. The only anomaly is the third version efficiency, by fabricating higher Q rings.
measurement on device 2; this was after significant testing, By combining the nano-scale slotted waveguide geometry
and the current observed was substantially less than was with electro-optical polymers having high nonlinear con
observed in previous tests on the same device. We suspect that stants, we have obtained massive enhancement of the optical
the polymer was degraded by repeated testing in this case. 55 field. That has in turn enabled us to exploit nonlinear optical
Analysis of Data for Optical Rectification processes that are typically only available in the kW regime in
To derive the magnitude of the expected photocurrent, we the sub-mW regime. This difference is so considerable that
assume that they magnitude relating to the Pockels' effect is we believe it represents a change in kind for the function of
similar to that for optical rectification. A measurement of X nonlinear optical devices. In addition, it is believed that this
can then be obtained from the direct observation of the elec 60 hybrid material system provides systems and methods for
tro-optic coefficient by the standard measurements described creating compact devices that exploit other nonlinear phe
earlier. The typical measured tuning value of 2 GHzNyields nomena on-chip.
approximately 50 um/V. Optical rectification based detectors can have many advan
In the best case, devices with 6 dBm of input power tages over currently available technology. In particular, Such
returned approximately 1.4 nA of current. With QS ranging 65 detectors are expected to function at a higher intrinsic rate
from 3 k to 5k, and assuming approximately 7 dB of insertion than the typical photodiode in use, as the optical rectification
loss in the input grating coupleron one of our chips, in the best process occurs at the optical frequency itself, on the order of
US 8,311,374 B2
15 16
100THZ in WDM systems. The absence of an external bias, sivity, a length-independent productV-L is reported. Typical
and the generation of a Voltage rather than a change in current V-L values are in the range of8Vcm in silicon, or 6 V-cm for
flow, both provide certain advantages in electronic operation. lithium niobate modulators. This Voltage-length product, or
We also believe that a device based on nonlinear optical responsivity, is an important figure of merit for examining a
rectification will not suffer from the limitation of a dark 5 novel modulator design. Making a modulator physically
current. This in turn can provide WDM systems that will longer generally trades lower halfwave Voltage against
function with lower optical power, providing numerous ben reduced operating frequency and higher loss. Because gener
efits. Similarly, our demonstration of enhanced modulation ating high-speed and high-power signals requires specialized
using these waveguide geometries provides useful compo amplifiers, particularly if broadband performance is required,
nents for future communications systems. 10 lowering the operating Voltage of modulators is extremely
We believe that there will be advantageous economic desirable, particularly for on-chip integrated electronic/pho
aspects of such devices in various embodiments. Because our tonic applications, (including chip-to-chip interconnects)
devices can be fabricated in planar electronics grade silicon where on-chip voltages are limited to levels available in
on-insulator, using processes compatible with advanced CMOS. FIG. 13 shows a diagram of a Mach-Zehnder modu
CMOS processing, it is expected that devices embodying is lator with a conventional electrode geometry.
these principles will be less expensive to fabricate. FIG.13 is a top-down view of a simple conventional Mach
Optical Modulators Zehnder polymer interferometer, showing top contact,
Optical modulators are a fundamental component of opti waveguide, and bottom contact layers. Such a device is usu
cal data transmission systems. They are used to convert elec ally operated in push/pull mode, where either opposite volt
trical Voltage into amplitude modulation of an optical carrier ages are applied to the different arms, or where the two arms
frequency, and they can serve as the gateway from the elec are poled in opposite directions to achieve the same effect.
trical to the optical domain. High-bandwidth optical signals In the past several years, silicon has gained attention as an
can be transmitted through optical fibers with low loss and ideal optical material for integrated optics, in particular at
low latency. All practical high-speed modulators that are in telecommunications wavelengths. Low loss optical devices
use today require input voltage shifts on the order of 1V to have been built, and modulation obtained through free carrier
obtain full extinction. However it is extremely advantageous 25 effects. One of the waveguides that can be supported by
in terms of noise performance for modulators to operate at silicon is the so-called slot waveguide geometry. This
lower drive Voltages. Many sensors and antennas generate involves two ridges of silicon placed close to each other, with
only millivolts or less. As a result it is often necessary to a small gap between them. We have demonstrated modulation
include an amplifier in conventional optical transmission sys regions based on filling this gap with a nonlinear material, and
tems, which often limits system performance. By using sili- 30 using the two waveguide halves as electrodes. In Sucha geom
con nano-slot waveguide designs and optical polymers, it is etry, the silicon is doped to a level that allows electrical
possible today to construct millivolt-scale, broadband modu conductivity without causing substantial optical losses. This
lators. In some embodiments, a millivolt-scale signal is one allows the two wires or ridges to serve both as transparent
having a magnitude in the range of hundreds of millivolts electrical contacts and as an optical waveguide.
down to units of millivolts. Using novel nanostructured as Using slot waveguides, we previously obtained an
waveguide designs, we have demonstrated a 100x improve improvement in modulation strength of nearly 5x when com
ment in Vat over conventional electro-optic polymer modula pared to the best contemporary conventional waveguide
tOrS. geometries with electrodes separated from the waveguide,
A variety of physical effects are available to produce opti with the initial, non-optimized designs. This improvement
cal modulation, including the acousto-optic effect, the Pock 40
was based on the remarkably small width of the gap across
els effect either inhard materials, such as lithium niobate or in which the driving Voltage drops. It is expected that Smaller
electro-optic polymers, free-carrier or plasma effects, elec gaps translate into higher field per Volt, and the Pockels Effect
tro-absorption, and thermal modulation. For many types of depends on the local strength of the electric field. The smaller
optical modulation, the basic design of a modulator is similar, the gap, the larger the index shift. A unique property of slot
a region of waveguide on one arm of a Mach-Zehnder inter waveguides is that, even as these gaps become nanoscale, the
ferometer is made to include an active optical material that 45 divergence conditions on the electric field require that much
changes index in response to an external signal. This might of the optical mode remains within the central gap. As a result,
be, for instance, a waveguide of lithium niobate, or a semi changing the index within a nanoscale gap can give a remark
conductor waveguide in silicon. In both cases, a Voltage is ably large change in the waveguide effective index. Because
introduced to the waveguide region by means of external of these divergence conditions, the optical mode's effective
electrodes. This causes the active region to shift in index 50 index is largely determined by the shift found even in very
slightly, causing a phase delay on the light traveling down one Small gaps.
arm of the modulator. When the light in that arm is recom Low V. Modulators
bined with light that traveled down a reference arm, the phase Several major approaches toward achieving low V modu
difference between the two signals causes the combined sig lation have recently been pursued. The free-carrier dispersion
nal to change in amplitude, with this change depending on the 55 effect in silicon waveguides has been used. Green et al.
amount of phase delay induced on the phase modulation arm. achieved a V of 1.8 V with this effect. Modulators based on
Other schemes, where both arms are modulated in order to lithium niobate are also frequently used. Typical commer
improve performance, are also common. cially obtained V values are 4 V. Recently, Mathine and
The measure of the strength of a modulation effect is how co-workers have demonstrated a nonlinear polymer based
much phase shift is obtained for a given input Voltage. Typical 60 modulator with a V of 0.65 V. For the devices produced by
conventional modulators obtain effective index shifts on the others, the attained values of V are large.
order of 0.004% for 1 V. This implies that a Mach-Zehnder 1 A number of approaches have been proposed for develop
cm in length, meant to modulate radiation near 1550 nm, ing low V modulators. Different proposed approaches rely
would require 1 V of external input for the arms to accumulate the development of new electrooptic materials, or on optical
a relative phase shift of radians. The halfwave voltage V (or designs that trade bandwidth for sensitivity, either through the
V) is the voltage needed for an interarm phase shift of at 65 use of resonant enhancement, or through dispersion engineer
radians (or 180 degrees). Lower values for V imply that less ing. The designs presented herein are based upon conven
power is needed to operate the modulator. Often, the respon tional, high-bandwidth Mach-Zehnder traveling wave
US 8,311,374 B2
17 18
approaches, but achieve appreciable benefits from using into extremely high free spectral ranges for ring modulators,
nano-slot waveguides. Of course, these designs can also take compact devices, and wide process latitudes for their fabri
advantage of the newest and best electrooptic polymers. In cation. Given the inexpensive and readily available foundry
principle, any material that can be coated conformally onto SOI and silicon processes available today, and the commer
the Surface of the silicon waveguides and that is reasonably cial availability of electron beam lithography at sub-10 nm
resistive could be used to provide modulation in these sys line resolution, it is expected that slot-waveguide based
tems, making the system extremely general. modulators are likely to replace conventional modulators in
The most recent nonlinear polymers achieve a high non many applications in the coming years.
linear coefficient, expressed as an r of 500 um/V. Using this Waveguide Geometries
in combination with the high susceptibilities described above, 10 We now describe several different waveguide geometries,
it is believed that it is possible today to construct a 1 cm and show the effective index susceptibility as a function of the
Mach-Zehnder modulator with a V of 8 mV. This corre slot sizes of the waveguide. The susceptibilities are calculated
sponds to a ring resonator with a tuning sensitivity of 795
GHz/V. Both of these values are two orders of magnitude near a 1550 nm free space wavelength. However, the values
better than the performance obtained by current approaches. obtained will not vary much from 1480 nm to 1600 nm as the
Current commercially available modulators typically have 15 modal pattern does not change significantly. In the embodi
Vats from 1 to 9V, and current tunable electro-optic polymer ments described, the waveguides are composed of silicon,
based resonators achieve 1 GHz/V of tunability. If the rs and assumed to rest on a layer of silicon dioxide. The top
value of 33 um/V demonstrated by Tazawa and Steier for cladding is a nonlinear polymer with an index of 1.7. This is
conventional polymer designs is used, thena V of 64 mV and similar to the waveguide geometry that we have used in our
a resonator tunability of 50 GHz/V are obtained. modulation work described hereinabove. FIG. 14 shows the
Segmented waveguide contact structures can be formed static electric fields solved as part of analyzing waveguide
that allow very low resistance electrical contact to slot design 1 with a gap of 40 nm, as described in Table 2. As one
waveguides. We have described above, in similar circum would expect, the field is nearly entirely concentrated inside
stances, electrical contact to waveguides can be established the slot area. The field shown was calculated assuming a
via segmented waveguides. See FIG. 12B and FIG. 12D and 25 voltage difference of 1 Volt. It is slightly larger than simply
the discussion related thereto. When the RC circuits implied the reciprocal of the gap size due to the singular nature of the
by the segmentation geometry and the gap are examined, it is Solution to Poisson’s equation near the corners of the
found that RC turn on times on the order of 200 GHz or more waveguide.
are achievable. Because the nonlinear polymers exhibit an FIG. 14A and FIG. 14B illustrate solved field patterns for
ultrafast nonlinearity, these waveguide geometries present a 30 the analysis of waveguide 1 at a 40 nm gap. FIG. 14A shows
path to making Terahertz Scale optical modulators. Because the static Voltage potential field distribution due to charging
the modulation is so strong, it is also possible to trade the the two electrodes. FIG. 14B shows the electric field due to
length of the modulator against V. For example, our optimal
geometry is expected obtain a V of 0.6V with a 100 um long the potential distribution. EI is plotted in increments of 10%.
Mach-Zehnder modulator. This device is expected be excep We have constrained ourselves to use waveguide geom
tionally simple to design for 10 GHz operation, as it could 35 etries that have minimum feature sizes of at least 20 nm.
likely be treated as a lumped element. We have shown above These are near the minimum feature sizes that can be reliably
that lateral contact structures with low loss and low resistance fabricated using e-beam lithography. Table 2 lists a descrip
can be constructed with these slot waveguides. See FIG. 12B tion of each type of waveguide studied. Each waveguide was
and FIG. 12D and the discussion related thereto. studied for a number of different gap sizes. In all cases, the
We believe these nano-slot waveguide designs present a 40 maximum susceptibility was obtained at the minimum gap
path to realizing very high speed, low Voltage modulators. It size. The maximum gap size studied and the Susceptibility at
is advantageous to be able to attain a responsivity V-L of less this point are also listed. In some cases, the study was termi
than 1 V-cm. The physical principles involved in such devices nated because at larger gap sizes, the mode is not supported;
are based on employing a nonlinear material of at least mod this is noted in Table 2. For multislot waveguide designs
erate resistivity, and a high index contrast waveguide with 45 where there are N arms, there are N-1 gaps; the design
tight lithographic tolerances. Therefore, it is expected that presumes that alternating arms will be biased either at the
nano-slot waveguides, either as Mach-Zehnder or ring-based input potential or ground.
devices, are likely an advantageous geometry for optical Table 2 shows the effective index susceptibility for various
modulation with nonlinear materials in many situations. In waveguide designs. The Susceptibility is approximately
addition, materials compatibility and processing issues are 50
inversely proportional to gap size.
greatly reduced for Such devices compared to conventional It is clear that within the regime of slotted waveguides, it is
multilayer patterned polymer modulator structures. always advantageous to make the slot size Smaller, at least
These high index contrast devices have (or are expected to down to the 20 nm gap we have studied. This causes the DC
have) extremely small bend radii, which are often orders of electric field to increase, while the optical mode tends to
magnitude Smaller than corresponding all-polymer designs migrate into the slot region, preventing any falloff due to the
with low loss and high Q. These geometric features translate optical mode failing to overlap the modulation region.
TABLE 2
Waveguide Waveguide Arm Sizes
Design Height (nm) (nm) Maximum Y (m') Minimum Y (im)
100 300, 300 1.3, 20 nm gap .40, 140 nm gap
150 300, 300 1.6, 20 nm gap .68, 120 nm gap
200 300, 300 2.3, 20 nm gap .74, 120 nm gap
100 400, 400 1.1, 20 nm gap .67, 60 nm gap,
modal limit
100 250, 250 1.2, 20 nm gap .56, 60 nm gap,
modal limit
US 8,311,374 B2
19 20
TABLE 2-continued
Waveguide Waveguide Arm Sizes
Design Height (nm) (nm) Maximum Y (m') Minimum Y (m')
6 100 300, 40,300 1.6, 20 nm gap .53, 80 nm gap,
modal limit
7 100 300, 40, 40, 1.9, 20 nm gap .76, 60 nm gap,
3OO modal limit
8 200 200, 40, 200 3, 20 nm gap 1.4, 60 nm gap,
modal limit
9 300 300, 300 2.5, 20 nm gap 2.5, 20 nm gap,
modal limit
Steier et al. NA NA .026, 10 m gap NA
In examining the results of our calculations, it is useful to 15 the performance of fabricated devices will be different from
calculate the maximum Susceptibilities that can be obtained. that of conventional slot waveguides due to fabrication pro
For an effective index of about 2, which is approximately cess differences. We have previously demonstrated empiri
correct for these waveguides, and a gap size of 20 nm, the cally that continuous electrical contact can be formed for
maximum achievable Y is approximately 12.5um'. Thus, for non-slotted waveguide via segmentation with relatively low
a gap size of 20 nm, waveguide design 8 is already within 25% optical losses.
of the theoretical maximum value. Here we present a simulation of a particular segmentation
It is also worth noting the corresponding Y value that can be geometry for our optimal slot waveguide design, that with
obtained by calculation using our methods for the separated 200 nm tall and 300 nm wide arms and a gap of 20 nm. We
electrode approach of Steier. The effective index of the mode have found that a segmentation with 40 nm arms, and a
is expected to be about 1.8, and the gap distance for the dc 25 periodicity of 100 nm, appears to induce no loss or significant
field is 10 um. Under the most optimistic assumptions about mode distortion in the waveguide. Around 2 um of clearance
mode overlap with the active polymer region (that is, assum appears to be needed from the edge of the segmented
ing complete overlap), this corresponds to a Y of about 0.03 waveguide to the end of the arms. FIG. 15A, FIG. 15B and
um'. FIG. 15C show plots of several cross sections of the seg
It is useful to calculate, given the current r values that are 30 mented slot waveguide with a plot of the modal pattern over
available, the index tuning that might be achieved with these laid. For comparison, a cross section of the unsegmented slot
designs. The most advanced polymers now yield r values of waveguide is presented as well. Simulations were also per
500 pm/V. If a bulk refractive index of 1.7 is used, then a formed to confirm that the index shift formula continued to
&n/GV of 0.006 V' is obtained with the best design given apply to the segmented slotted waveguide. It was found that
above. Using a waveguide with an effective index of 2 and a 35 the index shift was in approximate agreement with the value
group index of 3, which are typical of silicon-polymer nano predicted for the non-segmented case. Non-segmented mode
slot waveguides, the V for a Mach-Zehnder with a length of solvers were used for the rest of the simulations in this work,
1 cm is expected to be about 6 mV. The resonance shift that is because simulation of the segmented designs is radically
expected to be obtained in a ring resonator configuration more computationally burdensome than Solving for the
would be 380 GHz per volt. Both of these values represent 40 unsegmented case, as they require solving for the modes of a
orders of magnitude improvement in the performance of these 3d structure. Since the index shifts for the unsegmented and
devices compared to current designs. segmented cases are extremely similar, solving for the modes
Segmented Contacting in the unsegmented cases is adequate for purposes of design
As we have shown empirically, silicon can be doped to and proof-of-concept.
about 0.025 S.2-cm of resistivity with a n-type dopant without 45 FIG. 15A shows a cross section of the segmented, slotted
Substantially increasing losses. Other dopants or perhaps waveguide, with the El field plotted in increments of 10% of
other high index waveguiding materials may have even higher max value. FIG. 15B shows a similar plot for the unseg
conductivities that can be induced, without significantly mented waveguide. FIG. 15C shows a horizontal cross sec
degrading optical performance. However, it is known that the tion of the segmented, slotted waveguide; Re(Ex) is plotted in
conductivity cannot be increased endlessly without impact 50 increments of 20% of max. In an actual device, some sort of
ing optical loss. metal based transmission line would undoubtedly provide the
This naturally presents a serious challenge for the issue of driving voltage for the waveguide. The metal electrodes that
driving a slot waveguide of any Substantial length. Considera would likely form part of this transmission line have been
slot waveguide arm of length 1 mm, formed of our optimal noted in FIG.15C. In all cases the mode has been normalized
design. The capacitor formed by the gap between the two 55 to have 1 Watt of propagating power. FIG. 15A and FIG. 15C
electrodes is about 0.25 pF. The down the arm resistance of show the location of the other respective cross section as a line
the structure, however, is 4MS2. Therefore, the turn on time of denoted C in FIG. 15A and A in FIG. 15C.
an active waveguide based on this is about 0.1 LS, implying a Assuming a 0.025 ul-cm resistivity, one can calculate the
10 MHz bandwidth. outer arm resistance as 63 kS2 per side per period, while the
A solution to this problem is presented by continuously 60 inner arm resistance is 25 kS2 per side per period. The gap
contacting the waveguide via a segmented waveguide. This capacitance per period is 2.5x107 Farads. This implies a
comprises contacting the two silicon ridges with a series of bandwidth on the order of 200 GHz.
silicon arms. Even though the silicon arms destroy the con We now describe an electro-optic modulator fabricated
tinuous symmetry of the waveguide, for the proper choice of from a silicon slot waveguide and clad in a nonlinear polymer.
periodicity no loss occurs, and the mode is minimally dis 65 In this geometry, the electrodes form parts of the waveguide,
torted. This is becausea Bloch mode is formed on the discrete and the modulator driving Voltage drops across a 120 nm slot.
lattice periodicity, with no added theoretical loss. Of course As a result, a half wave voltage of 0.25 V is achieved near
US 8,311,374 B2
21 22
1550 nm. This is one of the lowest values for any modulator length in nm. We have also confirmed through electrical mea
obtained to date. As the nonlinear polymers are extremely surements that the two halves of the slots are largely electri
resistive, our device also has the advantage of drawing almost cally isolated.
no current. It is believed that this type of modulator could We believe that there is the possibility of constructing even
operate at exceedingly low power. 5 narrower slot waveguides, on the scale of 1-5 nm in thickness.
A unique advantage with nonlinear polymers is that an For example, one could use epitaxial techniques to grow a
integrated optical circuit can be conformally coated by a horizontal slot structure (rather than the vertical structures we
nonlinear polymer. This property, when combined with a slot have explored thus far) with an active, insulating material,
waveguide, enables the construction of a uniquely responsive with silicon beneath and above. This could be done in a layer
modulator. We describe the use of a push-pull Mach-Zehnder 10
form analogous to SOI wafer technology, in which a verythin
modulator configuration in which each arm has an opposing layer of electroactive material such as the polymers we have
bias, leading to an opposing phase shift. described herein could be introduced. Such structures offer
FIG. 16A shows the slot waveguide used for the Mach the possibility of yet another order of magnitude of improve
Zehnder modulator. The modal pattern near 1550 nm is plot ment in the low-voltage performance of modulators. We
ted, and contours of E are shown. FIG. 16B is an SEM 15
micrograph of a slot waveguide. In this case, the slot anticipate our slot structures to be fairly robust even in the
waveguide is being coupled to with a ridge waveguide; this presence of fabrication errors. Fabrication imperfections may
mode converter involves tiny gaps which ensure electrical cause some of the narrower slots to have tiny amounts of
isolation between the two arms. Contacting arms are also residual silicon or oxide in their centers, or to even be partially
presentaround 3 um from the ridge/slot junction. The dimen fused in places. As long as electrical isolation is obtained, and
sions are two 300x100 nm arms separated by a 120 nm slot. the optical loss is acceptable, we would expect the slot per
Nonlinear polymers typically have very high resistivity of formance to decrease only in a linear proportion to the amount
10' G2km. As a result, the two silicon arms are electrically of the slot volume that is no longer available to the nonlinear
isolated and can be used as modulator electrodes. The Voltage polymer cladding.
drop between the arms occurs across a 120 nm electrode 25 The description provided herein may be augmented by the
spacing, as opposed to the 5-10 um that is typically required descriptions provided in the following patents and pending
for modulators involving a nonlinear polymer and metallic patent applications: U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,200,308, 7.424,192,
contacts. This is a fundamental advantage that slot waveguide U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2009/0022445A1,
geometries have for electro-optic modulation. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/167,063, PCT/US2009/
It is advantageous to contact the silicon arms with an exter 30 33516, and PCT/US2009/36128.
nal electrode throughout the length of the Mach-Zehnder Now, turning to various embodiments of the instant inven
device to minimize parasitic resistances. We use a segmented tion, a LIDAR beam steering device for generating an elec
waveguide in which a periodic set of small arms touches both tromagnetic beam in the optical domain or mid to near infra
waveguide arms. We use a segmentation with a periodicity of red domain (about 10-400 THZ, referred to interchangeably
0.3 um and arm size of 0.1 um that is largely transparent to the 35 herein as “light) useful for LIDAR, LADAR, as well as other
optical mode. applications, is described herein. The steering device is based
Because the polymer has a second order nonlinearity, a on a phased array that can be fabricated on a planar photonic
Mach-Zehnder modulator can be operated in push-pull mode, integrated circuit (interchangeably referred to herein as a
even with no dc bias, effectively doubling the modulator “chip” or “IC). The input illumination for the LIDAR beam
response. FIG. 17A is a diagram of the modulator layout, in 40 can be generated on-chip, by another chip, or by an external
which contacts A, B, and C are shown. FIG. 17B is a diagram laser Source where the output electromagnetic energy of the
and FIG. 17C is a SEM micrograph that show the slotted, external laser source is optically coupled into the LIDAR
segmented region, as well as the location where the silicon beam steering chip. The input illumination is divided to pro
makes contact with the electrical layer. vide illumination propagating in a plurality of waveguides.
Referring to FIG. 17A, there are three regions in the modu 45 The light then is directed through integrated optical phase
lator that are capable of maintaining distinct Voltages. During modulators. Any suitable optical modulators can be used.
poling operation, contact A is given a Voltage of 2V. Device response times can be well in excess of 10 GHz. Using
contact B a voltage of V, and contact C is held at ground. Such phase modulators (typically operated by control elec
To achieve apolingfield of 150V/um.V. was 18V. This has tronics), the relative phases of the optical signal in a number
the effect of symmetrically orienting the polymer in the two 50 of separate waveguides can be controlled. The signals in these
Mach-Zehnder arms. During device operation, contact B is optical waveguides can then be directed into couplers, such
driven at the desired voltage, while contacts A and Care both as, for example vertical couplers, to couple light from the
held at ground, leading to asymmetric electric fields in the waveguide mode into a vertically radiating mode providing in
two arms for a single bias Voltage. This is the source of the totality, an electromagnetic beam. Suitable couplers include,
asymmetric phase response. Electrical regions A and C cross 55 but are not limited to grating couplers, such as those described
the waveguide by means of a slotted ridged waveguide. At the by Laere, et al. in “Compact Focusing Grating Couplers for
ridge to slot mode converter, a Small gap is left that maintains Silicon-on-Insulator Integrated Circuits. IEEE Photonics
electrical isolation but is optically transparent. This enables Technology Letters 19, 1919-1921 (2007), etched angled fac
the device to be built without requiring any via layers. A ets, or simple scattering sites. It is contemplated that in some
driving Voltage from a DC voltage source was applied to 60 embodiments, the optimal size of the vertical mode will be on
contact B, while contacts A and C were held at ground. the order of a few wavelengths of the radiation, or in other
We have recently demonstrated empirically that slot sizes embodiments, perhaps Smaller than a single wavelength. The
of around 70 nm can be fabricated in 110 nm SOI as ring optimal size of the vertical mode depends on the specific
resonators with electrical contacts. FIG. 18 is a diagram that application and platform. By controlling the phase difference
shows a transmission spectrum of an electroded slot 65 between the scattering sites as described above, the electro
waveguide resonator with a gap of 70 nm. Fiber to fiber magnetic beam can be effectively steered with no moving
insertion loss is plotted in dB, against the test laser wave parts.
US 8,311,374 B2
23 24
FIG. 19 shows a diagram of a top view of one exemplary site 401. FIG. 22B shows a top and side view of an etched
embodiment of a planar integrated photonic circuit beam facet vertical scattering site 402.
steering device 100 suitable for use in a LIDAR application. It is also contemplated that edge coupling is suitable for
In this exemplary embodiment, a 4x4 square array of vertical generating a steerable beam. In this approach, the output
couplers is shown. Other embodiments can have a smaller couplers are placed on the edge of the chip, Such as by termi
array or a larger array of couplers. The array can be in a nating the waveguides on a cleaved and polished surface, or
geometrical pattern other than square. Convenient geometries by creating a taper on the end of the waveguide. By control
include triangular or hexagonal arrays. The light source 104 ling the phase relation between the output optical modes, as
can be either an on-chip light Source or an off-chip light described hereinabove, a beam can be formed that has a
Source. The output electromagnetic beam of the planar inte 10 particular direction.
grated photonic circuit beam steering device 100 (also FIG. 23 shows a diagram of one embodiment of an exem
referred to interchangeably herein as a beam steering chip) plary single-layer edge coupled beam steerable device 500. A
can be steered with no moving parts. Such a steering device top view of the single-layer edge coupled beam steerable
100 can be fabricated on a planar photonic substrate (not device 500 is shown at the top of the drawing and a side view
shown in FIG. 19) as a phonic integrated circuit. An input 15 of the single-layer edge coupled beam steerable device 500 is
waveguide 101 formed on the planar photonic substrate can shown at the bottom of FIG. 23. Chip 500 receives an optical
be configured to accept an electromagnetic energy from a input 502 from either an on or off-chip source of light 502.
Source of electromagnetic energy (radiation) 104. A first split Input waveguide 509 receives light from optical input 502 and
ter 102, formed on the planar photonic substrate, is optically is disposed on chip substrate 501. Waveguides 503 distribute
coupled to an input waveguide 101 and configured to split the the light to splitters 504. Note that there can be branch split
incoming electromagnetic radiation into one or more paths ting, such as at branch splitter 511, before splitters 504.
107. There are four paths 107, shown in the exemplary Each of the phase modulators 505 respectively shifts the
embodiment of FIG. 19. One or more phased array rows 110 phase as desired to each waveguide 507. The phase shift of
are also formed on the planar photonic Substrate (four phased
array rows 110 are shown in FIG. 19) and optically coupled each of the phase modulators 505 is typically controlled by an
respectively to each of the paths 107. Each phased array row 25 electronic circuit (not shown in FIG. 23) and each phase
110 includes a row splitter 103. The row splitters 103 are modulator 505 outputs a phase shifted optical signal to each
configured to split each of the original paths 107 further into emitter 506 via each waveguide 507. In the exemplary
two or more row paths 108. In some embodiments, there can embodiment of FIG. 23, emitters 506 are shown as having an
be additional cascaded row splitters 103 (not shown) and/or optional taper. In some embodiments, emitters 506 can physi
row splitters having more than two split paths (also, not 30 cally terminate at a polished edge at a physical edge Surface of
shown). the chip thus serving as "edge' emitters 506. Any suitable
Each row path 108 includes aphase modulator 105. In FIG. edge emitter 506 can be used. Phase coherent output optical
19, phased modulators are shown as groups of four phase modes 508 result at each emitter 506.
modulator channels. It is unimportant to the invention how To both increase the total amount of output power and to
the phase modulators are grouped during layout and for fab 35 add an ability to steer the beam in a vertical direction, several
rication of a planar integrated photonic circuit beam steering beam steering chips, such as for example, beam steering chips
device 100. Any other suitable groupings can be used. The 500 as shown in FIG. 23, can be stacked on top of one another.
two or more phase modulators 105 are optically coupled To provide a desired spacing of the stacked layers, each chip
respectively via a row waveguide 108 to each of the row paths. 500, while substantially maintaining the design shown in
Each phase modulator output (shown in FIG. 19 optically 40
FIG. 23, can have a slightly thinned substrate.
coupled to waveguide 108 on the right side (output side) of FIG. 24 shows a side view of one exemplary stack of edge
each phase modulator 105) is optically coupled to an output coupled beam steering chips 500. The superposition of the
coupler 106. Each output coupler 106 is configured to emit plurality of phase coherent optical modes 508 provides a
electromagnetic radiation away from the Substrate. A plural generated beam 509. Such stacked devices, such as the exem
ity of optical couplers 106 is configured to radiate a steered plary device of FIG. 24, are capable of steering a beam in both
electromagnetic beam (photonic beam) in a desired direction 45 horizontal and vertical (or two orthogonal) directions.
away from the integrated photonic beam steering device 100. Further, it is contemplated that both detectors and emitters
For Some types of beam forming applications, it is further as described hereinabove can be integrated on the same Sub
contemplated that amplitude modulators can be added in a strate, for example, to create a single chip LADAR system.
path following one or more splitters 103, e.g. in the Additionally, beam steering chips can include coherent and
waveguide 108 paths. 50 phase sensitive detection. Resolving the delay from when the
FIG. 20 shows a side view of an integrated photonic beam LADAR beam is transmitted to when it reflects from a distant
steering device 100 radiating a steered photonic beam 202 in object is also thought to be possible. This is due to the fact that
a direction 203. The steered photonic beam 202 is generated the detector electronics can reside in close proximity to the
by the Superposition of individual electromagnetic emissions transmitting circuitry, allowing the use of on-chip phase
201 from each coupler 106 on substrate 204. 55
detection.
FIG.21 shows a diagram of a vertical coupling section of a As described in greater detail herein, the present invention
grating coupler 301 based beam steering array. Waveguides provides methods and structures that exhibit enhancement of
108 each feed a phase coherent optical signal to each grating the nonlinear effects in various electro-optical materials that
coupler 301. Grating couplers 301 can be formed, for is sufficient to make the nonlinear effects accessible with
example, by a collection of curved trenches or other scatter 60
continuous-wave, low-power lasers. AS is described herein
ing sources (not shown in FIG. 21). the waveguide is coated or clad with another material which
It is also contemplated that a chip can be etched at a 45 provides or exhibits an enhanced nonlinear optical coeffi
degree angle to create Smaller and more broadband scattering cient, such as certain kinds of organic electro-optical materi
sites. FIG. 22A and FIG. 22B show exemplary diagrams of als that can be specifically designed to operate in various
Suitable broadband scattering sites. The precise angle and regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. It is to be under
configuration of Such etching is dependant on the particular 65 stood that if the high contrast waveguide core material itself
wavelength and material platform. FIG.22A shows a top and exhibits a sufficiently large nonlinear optical coefficient of the
side view of an angle etched (etched angle) vertical scattering correct order, for example, a xfor a X coefficient, the clad
US 8,311,374 B2
25 26
ding may be omitted and the waveguide core itself can pro 6. The integrated photonic beam steering device of claim 2,
vide the nonlinear optical effects of interest. wherein said vertical coupler comprises an etched facet.
Theoretical Discussion 7. The integrated photonic beam steering device of claim 2,
Although the theoretical description given herein is wherein said vertical coupler comprises an etched angle.
thought to be correct, the operation of the devices described 5 8. The integrated photonic beam steering device of claim 1,
and claimed herein does not depend upon the accuracy or wherein at least one of said two or more output couplers
validity of the theoretical description. That is, later theoretical comprises an edge coupler.
developments that may explain the observed results on a basis 9. The integrated photonic beam steering device of claim 1,
different from the theory presented herein will not detract wherein said edge coupler comprises a cleaved and polished
from the inventions described herein. 10 Surface.
Any patent, patent application, or publication identified in 10. The integrated photonic beam steering device of claim
the specification is hereby incorporated by reference herein in 1, wherein said edge coupler comprises a taper on an end of a
its entirety. Any material, or portion thereof, that is said to be waveguide.
incorporated by reference herein, but which conflicts with 11. A stacked integrated photonic beam steering device
existing definitions, statements, or other disclosure material 15 comprising a plurality of integrated photonic beam steering
explicitly set forth herein is only incorporated to the extent devices as defined by claim 10 and configured to emit an
that no conflict arises between that incorporated material and electromagnetic beam having phase coherent optical modes,
the present disclosure material. In the event of a conflict, the said stacked integrated photonic beam steering device con
conflict is to be resolved in favor of the present disclosure as figured to provide a beam that is steerable in two orthogonal
the preferred disclosure. directions.
While the present invention has been particularly shown 12. The integrated photonic beam steering device of claim
and described with reference to the preferred mode as illus 1, wherein said two or more phase modulators comprise a free
trated in the drawing, it will be understood by one skilled in carrier based integrated optical phase modulator.
the art that various changes in detail may be affected therein 13. The integrated photonic beam steering device of claim
without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as 25 1, wherein said two or more phase modulators comprise a
defined by the claims. nonlinear polymer integrated optical phase modulator.
What is claimed is:
1. An integrated photonic beam steering device compris 14. The integrated photonic beam steering device of claim
ing: 1, wherein said steered photonic beam comprises at least one
a planar photonic Substrate; wavelength in wavelength range of about 200 nm to 200 um.
an input waveguide disposed on said planar photonic Sub 30 15. An electronic countermeasure system comprising said
strate and configured to accept electromagnetic energy integrated photonic beam steering device of claim 1, wherein
from a source of electromagnetic energy radiation; said steered photonic beam comprises an electronic counter
a first splitter disposed on said planar photonic Substrate measure signal.
and optically coupled to said input waveguide and con 16. The electronic countermeasure system of claim 15,
figured to split said electromagnetic radiation into one or 35 wherein said electronic countermeasure signal is configured
more paths; and to confuse a missile guidance system.
one or more phased array rows disposed on said planar 17. The electronic countermeasure system of claim 15,
photonic Substrate and optically coupled to each of said wherein said electronic countermeasure signal is configured
one or more paths, each phased array row comprising: to confuse a selected one of detection and Surveillance sys
40 tem.
a row splitter configured to split said each of said one or 18. An integrated photonic beam steering system, compris
more paths into two or more row paths; ing:
two or more phase modulators, each of said two or more a source of electromagnetic radiation having a wavelength
phase modulators optically coupled respectively via a range in a wavelength range of about 200 nm to 200 um;
row waveguide to each of said two or more row paths, 45 and
each of said two or more phase modulators having a an integrated photonic beam steering device according to
phase modulator output; and claim 1 coupled to said source of electromagnetic radia
two or more output couplers optically coupled respectively tion and configured to transmit a phase arrayed optical
to each phase modulator output of said two or more electromagnetic signal suitable for a selected one of
phase modulators, each of said two or more output cou 50 LIDAR and LADAR.
plers configured to emit electromagnetic radiation away 19. The integrated photonic beam steering system of claim
from said substrate, said two or more output couplers 18, further comprising:
configured to radiate a steered photonic beam in a a detector configured to receive a return optical electro
desired direction away from said integrated photonic magnetic signal, configured to provide phase detection,
beam steering device. 55 and configured to measure a delay between said trans
2. The integrated photonic beam steering device of claim 1, mitted phase arrayed optical electromagnetic signal and
wherein at least one of said two or more output couplers said received return optical electromagnetic signal and
comprises a vertical coupler. a system output configured to provide a measure of said
3. The integrated photonic beam steering device of claim 2, delay.
wherein said vertical coupler comprises a grating coupler. 60 20. The integrated photonic beam steering system of claim
4. The integrated photonic beam steering device of claim3, 19, wherein said detector is phase sensitive.
wherein said grating coupler comprises a collection of curved 21. The integrated photonic beam steering system of claim
trenches.
5. The integrated photonic beam steering device of claim3, 19, wherein said detector is disposed on said planar substrate.
wherein said grating coupler comprises a collection of scat
tering Sources.

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