This application claims the benefit of foreign priority under 35 USC § 119 and 365 to European Application No. 03290370.0 filed on 14 Feb. 2003.
The present invention relates to an optical component comprising an optical waveguide structured in a core layer and to a photonic device comprising at least one such optical component.
Optical components comprising an optical waveguide are part of planar photonic devices. Such optical components can be designed to function, among other things, as multiplexers, switches or filters. The optical waveguides within such an optical component are used for carrying light e.g. from one part to another one of the planar photonic devices. In the past, the number of optical components formed within a photonic device has been increased continuously. Such an increase of optical components integrated in a single photonic device implies a higher compactness and/or the ever increase of optical signals to be transmitted through the same optical waveguide leading to stringent working conditions. This is particularly the case concerning the tolerable stray light possibly present at some parts of the photonic device. Indeed, such stray light can be the origin of cross-talk and optical noise. Hence, the-presence of stray light may directly deteriorate the overall performance of the device. Therefore, there is a real need to alleviate or eliminate stray light.
WO 01/33263 A1 discloses a method of filtering optical noise generated by an optical component in a planar photonic device. The planar photonic device in which this method is implemented comprises refractive index change regions. These regions are placed symmetrically on either side of the path of the light downstream from the optical component and are adapted to prevent forward propagation of the light outside said path. The refractive index change regions can be constituted by trenches or by regions possessing saw tooth-shaped elements etched in the photonic devices. This prior art document explicitly teaches to use refractive index change regions in a symmetrical configuration, that is on both sides of for example an optical waveguide carrying the light. The design of the planar photonic device is strongly restricted due to the necessity of a symmetrical configuration of the refractive index change regions. Beside that, the necessity of a supplementary etching process is inevitably associated with a higher manufacturing cost factor of such photonic device.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,298,178 B1 is described an alternative by doping selected areas of the substrate on which an integrated optical circuit is formed. Those selected areas show accordingly the property of absorbing light. When designed in an appropriate way in the vicinity of the integrated optical circuit, these selected areas will absorb stray light present in the substrate which is not guided by components of the optical circuit. Despite a different approach compared to WO 01/33263 A1, it has clearly the same disadvantage as quoted above.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,212,307 B1 [EP806685] discloses an integrated optical device which has an optical microguide of index n0 between two confinement layers of index respectively n1 and n1′. The index n0 of the microguide exceeds both indices n1 and n1′ such that any radiation introduced into said microguide propagates along the axis of the latter. Filtering means constituted by at least one reflector element are placed on at least one side of the microguide, the reflector element having at least one element etched in layers of index n1 and/or n1′ and/or n0. In this approach, the problem of stray light is overcome by reflector elements which reflect the stray light away from the microguide. Besides showing similar disadvantage as the two previous examples, the reflecting elements must be designed in a relatively large scale to obtain a satisfying effectiveness. This restricts substantially its application.
In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide an optical component allowing one to suppress stray light with high effectiveness while being applicable to different configurations without implying a notable cost factor in the manufacture of photonic devices.
This object is achieved in accordance with the invention by an optical component comprising an optical waveguide and adjacent to it at least a grating array adapted to reflect stray light away from said optical waveguide. The use of a grating array leads to high flexibility concerning, among other things, the reflection direction to be chosen and/or the possibility to select a specific wavelength window. Advantageously, the use of a grating array with a plurality of structures like polygons or stripes gives the possibility to define a multiple reflection direction. This is possibly obtained using polygons laid out in different orientations up to a random one.
Alternately to the polygon, the grating array may be designed as a grating array of several adjacent stripes. Advantageously, the grating array may be chosen such that the stripes are equidistantly placed, while possibly using at least two different characteristic spacings for this distance. In such a way, it is possible to optimize the grating array for stray light of specific wavelength. It may be of benefit to design a grating array with bent strips improving even more the reflection property. The latter design gives also the possibility to collect the stray light into some particular region where a light absorbing material could be present.
A further advantage of the present invention is obtained by structuring said grating array in the same core layer as the one of the optical waveguide. In such a way, the choice of a grating array for reflecting stray light will not require a new step during the processing of the optical component.
In an embodiment, the array are chosen to be Bragg gratings. Such array can be advantageously designed as a chirped one with a non-uniform period. The period can be adapted to correspond to the operating window for optical signals to be transmitted through said optical waveguide. Therefore, the array are optimized to reflect any stray light particularly disturbing in the operating of a photonic device. Furthermore, the Bragg gratings can be designed slanted with an angle defined in the plane comprising said optical waveguide. Alternately, the angle can be defined in a plane perpendicular to it. The choice of the orientation of the slanted Bragg grating is advantageously taken according to the most appropriate region where the stray light shall be reflected.
Advantageous developments of the invention are described in the dependent claims, the following description and the drawings.
The novel features of the invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. A better understanding of the features and advantages of the present invention will be obtained by reference to the following detailed description that sets forth illustrative embodiments, in which the principles of the invention are utilized, and the accompanying drawings of which:
a, 7b are respectively a schematic top and sectional view of an optical component according to a fifth embodiment;
In
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In
In the embodiments of
In
It is of interest to choose a grating array adapted to reflect stray light of wavelength comprised in a predefined window. In
In
In
The use of an optical component according to
It is also conceivable to combine several grating arrays according to the present invention on the same side of an optical waveguide. The grating arrays may be defined by different parameters like various slant angles or/and may cover different wavelength windows in case the grating arrays are designed with non-uniform periods like chirped Bragg gratings. It is also possible to combine grating arrays of different kinds like the one shown in
While preferred embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described herein, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that such embodiments are provided by way of example only. Numerous variations, changes, and substitutions will now occur to those skilled in the art without departing from the invention. It should be understood that various alternatives to the embodiments of the invention described herein may be employed in practicing the invention. It is intended that the following claims define the scope of the invention and that methods and structures within the scope of these claims and their equivalents be covered thereby.
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