Granted Patent B2

US 9,660,411 · App. 15/042,803 · Granted May 23, 2017

Abstract

Claims (27)

1. A wavelength tunable silicon-on-insulator (SOI) laser comprising:

a laser cavity including:

a semiconductor gain medium having a front end and a back end; and

a phase-tunable waveguide platform coupled to the front end of the semiconductor gain medium, the phase-tunable waveguide platform comprising:

a first waveguide Fabry-Perot filter; and

a second waveguide Fabry-Perot filter, at least one of the Fabry-Perot filters being a phase-tunable Fabry-Perot filter,

wherein a mirror of the laser cavity is located at the back end of the semiconductor gain medium.

2. The wavelength tunable SOI laser of claim 1 , wherein the first and second Fabry-Perot filters are formed by a total of three cascaded Distributed Bragg Reflector (DBR) gratings.

3. The wavelength tunable SOI laser of claim 1 , wherein the first and second Fabry-Perot filters are formed by a total of three waveguide partial reflectors.

4. The wavelength tunable SOI laser of claim 1 , wherein the phase-tunable waveguide platform includes bifurcated waveguides, one arm of the bifurcated waveguides comprising both the first and second Fabry-Perot filters in a series arrangement.

5. The wavelength tunable SOI laser of claim 4 , wherein a bifurcated waveguide of the bifurcated waveguides is a Y-branch waveguide.

6. The wavelength tunable SOI laser of claim 4 , wherein the phase-tunable waveguide platform includes a 1×2 coupler which couples light from the semiconductor gain medium into:

a first branch containing the first and second Fabry-Perot filters; and

a second branch containing an output of the wavelength tunable SOI laser.

7. The wavelength tunable SOI laser of claim 1 , wherein the phase-tunable Fabry-Perot filter includes a phase tuning region which comprises an electro-optical medium.

8. The wavelength tunable SOI laser of claim 1 , wherein the phase-tunable Fabry-Perot filter includes a phase tuning region which comprises a p-i-n junction region.

9. The wavelength tunable SOI laser of claim 1 , wherein the phase-tunable Fabry-Perot filter includes a phase tuning region which comprises a p-n junction device.

10. The wavelength tunable SOI laser of claim 1 , wherein both the first Fabry-Perot filter and the second Fabry-Perot filter are tunable Fabry-Perot filters.

11. The wavelength tunable SOI laser of claim 10 ,

wherein a phase tuning region of the first Fabry-Perot filter is any one of: a p-n junction or p-i-n junction; and

wherein a phase tuning region of the second Fabry-Perot filter is any one of: a p-n junction; or p-i-n junction.

12. The wavelength tunable SOI laser of claim 1 , wherein the phase-tunable waveguide platform comprises at least one transition region at which a waveguide of a first height is coupled to a waveguide of a second height; the second height being less than the first height.

13. The wavelength tunable SOI laser of claim 12 , wherein the first and second Fabry-Perot filters are located in a waveguide of a second height.

14. The wavelength tunable SOI laser of claim 12 , wherein the transition region includes a taper.

15. The wavelength tunable SOI laser of claim 12 , wherein the transition region is a mode transformer.

16. The wavelength tunable SOI laser of claim 1 , wherein the phase-tunable waveguide platform comprises a transition region at which a waveguide of a first width is coupled to a waveguide of a second width; the second width being less than the first width.

17. The wavelength tunable SOI laser of claim 16 , wherein the first and second Fabry-Perot filters are located in a waveguide of said second width.

Assignments (11)