Method and apparatus for steering an optical beam in a semiconductor substrate

US6690036B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Intel Corporation · US

Inventors

• Ansheng Liu · Cupertino, US
• Mario Paniccia · Santa Clara, US
• Michael T. Morse · San Jose, US
• Dmitri E. Nikonov · معلمی نژاد, US
• Yi Ding

Key dates

• Filing date: Mar 16, 2001
• Grant date: Feb 10, 2004
• Expiry date: Apr 28, 2021

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G02F1/217
• WIPO field: Optics
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

An optical steering method and apparatus. In one aspect of the present invention, the disclosed apparatus includes a multi-mode interference (MMI) device disposed in a semiconductor substrate. The MMI device includes an input and a plurality of outputs Each one of the plurality of outputs of the MMI device is optically coupled to the input of the MMI device. A phase array is disposed in the semiconductor substrate. The phase array includes a plurality of inputs and a plurality of outputs. The plurality of inputs of the phase array optically are coupled to the plurality of outputs of the phase array. The phase array is coupled to control relative phase differences between optical beams output by each one of the plurality of outputs of the phase array.