The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 16, 2001
Filed:
May. 05, 2000
William K. Burns, Alexandria, VA (US);
The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy, Washington, DC (US);
Abstract
This device is a broadband, electro-optic modulator comprising an exemplary coplanar waveguide (CPW) electrode structure on an exemplary Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The modulator is formed on a lithium niobate (LiNbO,) substrate that is etched so as to form ridges upon which a gold center electrode and two gold grounded waveguides are deposited upon a buffer layer of silicon dioxide (SiO,) to form a coplanar waveguide electrode structure having a waveguide mode for receiving an electrical signal propagating therethrough in a first direction with a second phase velocity to phase modulate an optical light in the optical waveguide at a frequency in the range from 0 Hz to substantially 40 GHz. The ridges formed by the etching of the substrate acts to lower the effective dielectric constant of the structure, and as the spacing between electrodes is increased, the overlap integral gets larger as the electrical field becomes more vertical, and better confined, and the intrinsic electrical loss coefficient is reduced and the electrical losses through the device become smaller requiring less voltage to modulate the optical signal.