High Efficiency Optical Phased Array Using Silicon Nitride Waveguide

Abstract

A high-efficiency grating antenna and a multimode interference beam splitter using a silicon-nitride waveguide have been studied for an optical phased array with an operating wavelength of 1550 nm. A waveguide grating antenna with patterned top cladding and a 1x2 multimode interference beam splitter with a tapered waveguide are considered. The optimized waveguide grating antenna and the multimode interference beam splitter offer above 70% directionality and 98% high single-mode transmission, respectively. These results indicate the possibility of using silicon nitride as a waveguide for a high-efficiency optical phased array. © 2020 The Korean Physical Society. All rights reserved.