High Density Integration of Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers in InP Generic Photonic Integration Technology

Abstract

We present experimental studies of semiconductor optical amplifiers with a high integration density in an InP generic photonic integration platform. We study the activepassive butt-joint integration of dense arrays of active islands with widths ranging from 2 to 30 µm, and pitches ranging from 4 to 270 µm. We show that reducing the active island width from 20 µm to 4 µm enables a decrease of pitch by almost 4 times while keeping a similar growth rate enhancement (GRE) in between the active islands. The impact of narrow active islands on amplifier performance is also studied with an array of Fabry-Pérot lasers fabricated in a commercial generic platform. We demonstrate the manufacturability of lasers with a pitch of 25µm and evaluate individual device performance. Threshold currents and slope efficiencies are not impaired with narrow active island down to 6 µm, with values of 19-26 mA and 0.08-0.15 W/A respectively.

Demonstration of Inherently Low Differential Phase Noise Across C-Band in InP Integrated, Amplifying Optical Phased Arrays

“…Further, the DPN measurement structure also enables OPA calibration [29]. The OPA chip is operated at 18 0 C (SOA performance was previously measured at this temperature [30] )and is pumped by an external laser with narrow linewidth (Keysight 81960A +14 dBm, 100 kHz). The optical polarization is aligned to the chip by adjusting the polarization controller to maximize the photocurrent of the reverse-biased booster SOA (2 mm long, 2 µm wide).…”