Silicon photonic beam steering module with backside coupling elements toward dense heterogeneous integration with drive electronics
X. Chen,
F. Meng,
S. A. Fortune,
A. J. Compston,
M. Ebert,
X. Yan,
H. Du,
M. Banakar,
D. T. Tran,
C. G. Littlejohns,
D. J. Thomson,
R. Nicolaescu,
G. T. Reed
Affiliations
X. Chen
Optoelectronics Research Centre, Zepler Institute for Photonics and Nanoelectronics, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom
F. Meng
Optoelectronics Research Centre, Zepler Institute for Photonics and Nanoelectronics, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom
S. A. Fortune
Pointcloud, Inc., San Francisco, California 94107, USA
A. J. Compston
Pointcloud, Inc., San Francisco, California 94107, USA
M. Ebert
Optoelectronics Research Centre, Zepler Institute for Photonics and Nanoelectronics, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom
X. Yan
Optoelectronics Research Centre, Zepler Institute for Photonics and Nanoelectronics, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom
H. Du
Optoelectronics Research Centre, Zepler Institute for Photonics and Nanoelectronics, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom
M. Banakar
Optoelectronics Research Centre, Zepler Institute for Photonics and Nanoelectronics, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom
D. T. Tran
Optoelectronics Research Centre, Zepler Institute for Photonics and Nanoelectronics, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom
C. G. Littlejohns
Optoelectronics Research Centre, Zepler Institute for Photonics and Nanoelectronics, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom
D. J. Thomson
Optoelectronics Research Centre, Zepler Institute for Photonics and Nanoelectronics, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom
R. Nicolaescu
Pointcloud, Inc., San Francisco, California 94107, USA
G. T. Reed
Optoelectronics Research Centre, Zepler Institute for Photonics and Nanoelectronics, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom
Solid state beam steering devices are key elements in low cost, robust, and three-dimensional imaging systems. Here, we present a silicon photonic beam steering device based upon an 8 × 8 grating coupler focal plane array approach fed by a thermo-optic Mach–Zehnder switching tree. In this device, transmission of light from the grating couplers is made through the backside of the chip using topside mirrors allowing for both high-efficiency out-coupling and direct flip-chip integration of drive electronics, providing a path to scale to denser focal plane arrays with large numbers of points in the future. A −13.8 dB fiber-to-fiber transmission was achieved in our preliminary test around 1523 nm for the beam steering chip.