Leland Stanford Junior University

Dries J F Vercruysse

Jelena Vuckovic

A dispersion-engineered 2D optical phased array device includes optical slow light waveguides [] arranged parallel to each other; waveguide bends [] optically coupling ends of adjacent waveguides of the optical slow light waveguides to form a serpentine optical configuration; wherein the optical slow light waveguides comprise first waveguides of a first waveguide type and second waveguides of a second waveguide type, wherein the first waveguides and the second waveguides are arranged adjacent to each other and alternate with each other; wherein the optical slow light waveguides comprise phased array sections forming a phased array [], wherein first waveguides and second waveguides have dispersion slopes of opposite sign and the same group index; wherein the optical slow light waveguides comprise slow light delay waveguide sections [] that provide a delay between adjacent waveguides.

Serpentine optical phased array with dispersion matched waveguides

A photonic crystal optical phased array device has a dispersion engineered slow light waveguide region; a mode coupler region capable of optically coupling an input waveguide to the dispersion engineered slow light waveguide region; and optical antenna regions integrated within the dispersion engineered slow light waveguide region. The dispersion engineered slow light waveguide region has a substantially linear dispersion relation within a predetermined operational bandwidth of the optical phased array device. The optical antenna regions are formed by an alteration of a periodic structure of the photonic crystal and are capable of radiating light out from the dispersion engineered slow light waveguide region.

Growing community of inventors

Palo Alto, CA, United States of America

Dries J F Vercruysse