Open AccessWafer-level calibration of large-scale integrated optical phased arrays
Author(s) -
Sylvain Guerber,
Daivid Fowler,
Jonathan Faugier-Tovar,
KIM ABDOUL CARIM,
Baptiste Delplanque,
Bertrand Szelag
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.464540
Subject(s) - calibration , optics , electronic circuit , fabrication , wafer , materials science , channel (broadcasting) , phase (matter) , computer science , phased array , electronic engineering , optoelectronics , physics , engineering , telecommunications , alternative medicine , pathology , quantum mechanics , antenna (radio) , medicine
We present the wafer-level characterization of a 256-channel optical phased array operating at 1550 nm, allowing the sequential testing of different OPA circuits without any packaging steps. Using this, we establish that due to random fabrication variations, nominally identical circuits must be individually calibrated. With this constraint in mind, we present methods that significantly reduce the time needed to calibrate each OPA circuit. In particular, we show that for an OPA of this scale, a genetic optimization algorithm is already >3x faster than a simple hill climbing algorithm. Furthermore, we describe how the phase modulators within the OPA may be individually characterized 'in-situ' and how this information can be used to configure the OPA to emit at any arbitrary angle following a single, initial calibration step.