Dual Polarization and Bi-Directional Silicon-Photonic Optical Phased Array With Large Scanning Range

Abstract

We propose a large scanning range silicon optical phased array (OPA), which is polarization multiplexed and bi-directional with only one waveguide grating antenna array. Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZIs) and polarization splitter-rotator (PSR) are utilized to select the polarization states and propagation directions of the input light to the waveguide grating emitter array. By optimizing the parameters of the waveguide grating, the longitudinal far-field steering range is increased by four times compared to that of the conventional ones among the same wavelength range. The simulation results show that the 54.5° longitudinal scanning range could be realized with the tuning wavelength ranging from 1500 nm to 1600 nm. The high wavelength tuning efficiency is up to 0.545 °/nm. The beam steering range in the lateral direction is 77.8° via phase tuning.