Metrophotonics Inc.

Onechip Photonics Inc.

Electrophotonic-ic Inc.

Artic Photonics Inc.

Enablence Inc.

Yury Logvin

Kirill Pimenov

Fang Wu

Christopher Watson

Valery Tolstikhin

Adrian O'Donnell

Yongbo Tang

Serge Grabtchak

A VCSEG-DFB laser, fully compatible with MGVI design and manufacturing methodologies, for single growth monolithic integration in multi-functional PICs is presented. It comprises a laser PIN structure, in mesa form, etched from upper emitter layer top surface through the active, presumably MQW, gain region, down to the top surface of the lower emitter. Lower electrical contacts sit adjacent the mesa disposed on the lower emitter layer with upper strip contacts disposed atop the upper emitter layer on the mesa top. An SEG is defined/etched from mesa top surface, between the upper strip contacts, through upper emitter layer down to or into the SCH layers. Vertical confinement is provided by the SCH structure and the lateral profile in the bottom portion of the mesa provides lateral confinement. The guided mode interacts with the SEG by the vertical tail penetrating the SEG and evanescent field coupling to the SEG.

Vertically-coupled surface-etched grating DFB laser

The invention describes an integrated photonics platform comprising a plurality of at least three vertically-stacked waveguides which enables light transfer from one waveguide of the photonic structure into another waveguide by means of controlled tunneling method. The light transfer involves at least three waveguides wherein light power flows from initial waveguide into the final waveguide while tunneling through the intermediate ones. As an exemplary realization of the controlled tunneling waveguide integration, the invention describes a photonic integrated structure consisting of laser guide as upper waveguide, passive guide as middle waveguide, and modulator guide as lower waveguides. Controlled tunneling is enabled by the overlapped lateral tapers formed on the same or different vertical waveguide levels. In the further embodiments, the controlled tunneling platform is modified to implement wavelength-(de)multiplexing, polarization-splitting and beam-splitting functions.

Controlled tunneling waveguide integration (CTWI) for effective coupling between different components in a photonic chip

Disclosed herein is a monolithically integrated coherent receiver chip which has a geometric arrangement of the on-chip components that significantly improves the performance and the manufacturability of a coherent receiver module for Dual Polarization Quadrature Phase Shift Keyed (DP-QPSK) applications and other optical coherent detection systems. The coherent receiver chip comprises two optical hybrids, three optical inputs and eight electrical outputs with the two optical hybrids oriented perpendicular to the optical inputs and the electrical outputs which are widely spaced and arranged in a co-linear fashion that simplifies module design and assembly. The proposed geometric arrangement also replaces any optical waveguide crossings with vertical electrical-optical crossings and includes electrical transmissions which are used to minimize channel skew. The proposed configuration also has the additional benefit of improved thermal management by separating the module's trans-impedance amplifiers.

Integrated coherent receiver having a geometric arrangement for improved device efficiency

The invention describes an integrated-photonics arrangement, implementable in a multi-guide vertical integration (MGVI) structure composed from III-V semiconductors and grown in one epitaxial growth run, allowing for the integration of semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) and PIN photodetector (PIN) structures within a common wavelength-designated waveguide of the plurality of the vertically integrated wavelength-designated waveguides forming the MGVI structure. The integration includes a wavelength filter integrated between the SOA and PIN to reduce noise within the PIN arising from ASE generated by the SOA. In exemplary embodiments of the invention, the wavelength filter is integrated into MGVI structure either within a common wavelength designated waveguide or within the wavelength-designated waveguide. Further in other embodiments the wavelength filter is provided by a thin-film filter abutting a facet of the integrated-photonics arrangement wherein optical signals are coupled by optical waveguides and/or additional optical elements such as a multimode interference device.

Waveguide optically pre-amplified detector with passband wavelength filtering

Ridge and buried waveguide structures feature a plurality of trenches disposed proximate the waveguides in order to enhance confinement of an optical signal propagating within the waveguide are described. Additionally, an adiabatic transition region where the distance between trenches and waveguide is featured.

Planar waveguide structure with tightly curved waveguides

The invention describes method and apparatus for a mode converter enabling an adiabatic transfer of a higher order mode into a lower order optical mode within a photonic integrated circuit exploiting integrated semiconductor ridge waveguide techniques. As disclosed by the invention, such a mode conversion is achievable by using an asymmetric coupler methodology. In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the invention is used to provide a low insertion loss optical connection between laterally-coupled DFB laser operating in first order mode and passive waveguide operating in the zero order optical mode. The integrated arrangement fabricated by using one-step epitaxial growth allows for a launch of the laser's light into the waveguide circuitry operating in the zero order lateral mode or efficiently coupling it to single-mode fiber, an otherwise high loss interface due to the difference in laser and optical fiber modes.

Integrated lateral mode converter

The invention describes an integrated-photonics arrangement, implementable in a multi-guide vertical integration structure composed from III-V semiconductors and grown in one epitaxial growth run, that allows for vertical and lateral splitting of optical signals co- or bi-directionally propagating in the common passive waveguide into plurality of the vertically integrated passive or active wavelength-designated waveguides, therefore, enabling the wavelength-designated waveguides operating in different wavelengths to be monolithically integrated onto the same substrate and connected to the shared passive waveguide. In the exemplary embodiments of the invention, two active wavelength-designated waveguides, each of which either laser or photodetector, are vertically integrated with a common passive waveguide connected to the input/output optical port shared by both operating wavelengths, to form a single-fiber, two-wavelength receiver (both wavelength-designated waveguides are waveguide photodetectors) or transmitter (both wavelength-designated waveguides are edge-emitting semiconductor injection lasers) or transceiver (one wavelength-designated waveguide is waveguide photodetector and the other&#x2014;edge-emitting semiconductor injection laser). Advantageously to the previous art, the proposed vertical splitting and lateral routing allows for a reduced footprint size while greatly improving design flexibility and/or device performance.

Integrated optics arrangement for wavelength (De)multiplexing in a multi-grade vertical stack

A design for a polarization independent ridge waveguide structure is shown. The inventive waveguide structure features discontinuous trenches formed on either side of the waveguide in which the waveguide has a first polarization characteristic absent the trenches and a second polarization characteristic when the trenches are present. The length of the trenches and the distance between the trenches are chosen to provide a desired amount of attenuation to each of the TE and TM modes. Additionally, this method is used to cause a predetermined polarization in order to compensate for the polarization of another optical component.

Planar waveguide structure with polarization compensation

An optical wavelength multiplexing device for use in an optical networking environment is presented. The device features optically dispersive elements combined with an array of reflectors that permit both realization of flat-top filter characteristics together with noise reduction, and in some embodiments wavelength routing, blocking or add-drop functionality. Additionally, the design of the device is easily modified to dissipate light having a wavelength that does not correspond to any predetermined wavelength channel.

Passband flattened demultiplexer employing segmented reflectors and other devices derived therefrom

A design for controlling optical modes in a closely spaced weakly confined waveguide array is described wherein the crosstalk between individual waveguides is suppressed by segmented deep etched trenches. One exemplary embodiment of the invention incorporates a shallow etched ridge waveguide array at the output coupler of a semiconductor optical demultiplexer. In this situation, all higher order modes and supermodes are filtered by a sequence of deep etched trenches located between the shallow etched ridge waveguides. The trenches have a minimal effect on the single fundamental mode of the individual shallow etched waveguides because the trenches are located far enough from the ridge waveguides where an evanescent tail of the fundamental mode approaches a minimal power level. The trenches affect and suppress all other modes including higher order leaky modes and array supermodes leaving the single fundamental mode propagating in the arrayed waveguides.

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Ottawa, Canada

Yury Logvin