Fabrication of irregular optical phased arrays on silicon-on-insulator wafers

Abstract

A 16- and a 32-element irregular optical phased array based on silicon-on-insulator materials were fabricated. Such a device consists of an array of irregularly spaced single-mode waveguides, each of which has a specific length to give an appropriate phase retardation controllable by the wavelength. The optical beam can be steered continuously in the range of about 0to3deg, corresponding to the wavelength varying from 1550.7to1551.9nm. © 2008 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.