Optical phased array using stacked parallel plate wave guides and method of fabricating arrays of stacked parallel plate waveguides

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9696605-B2
Application number	US-201515035333-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 1, 2015
Priority date	Sep 8, 2014
Publication date	Jul 4, 2017
Grant date	Jul 4, 2017

Abstract

A method for fabricating crystalline dielectric material on top of metal layers to produce an apparatus for non-mechanical steering of an input laser beam is provided. The apparatus may include a plurality of stacked parallel dielectric waveguides, each waveguide of which is fabricated by separating layers of dielectric material from a donor wafer and bonding the separated layers of dielectric material to a receiving wafer. A plurality of voltages is applied across the stacked parallel dielectric waveguides. Each of the stacked parallel dielectric waveguides is electrically phase modulated to deflect an output beam in a predictable manner.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for fabricating a waveguide suitable for non-mechanical steering of an input laser beam having a laser wavelength, the waveguide comprising crystalline dielectric material on top of metal layers, the method comprising:
creating an implantation line in a donor wafer of dielectric material by implanting ions into the donor wafer to a predetermined distance beneath a top surface of the donor wafer, the predetermined distance being controlled and defined by a speed of implantation the ions, a separation layer of dielectric material being thereby defined between the top surface of the donor wafer and the implantation line, said separation layer having a thickness equal to the predetermined distance, said thickness being less than one half of the laser wavelength;
applying a first metallization layer onto the top surface of the donor wafer;
separating the separation layer of dielectric material from the donor wafer by slicing the donor wafer at the implantation line; and
applying a second metallization layer onto the separation layer, so that the separation layer is sandwiched between the first and second metallization layers.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
applying a third metallization layer to a receiving wafer;
before separating the separation layer, placing and aligning the donor wafer onto the top surface of the receiving wafer and bonding the separation layer of dielectric material to the receiving wafer by thermo-compression bonding of the first metallization layer to the third metallization layer.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
polishing at least one of the donor and receiving wafers to vary a surface roughness thereof.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein implanting ions into the donor wafer further comprises implanting Helium ions into the donor wafer to the predetermined distance into the donor wafer.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein depositing the first, second, and third metallization layers onto the donor wafer, the separation layer, and the receiving wafer respectively further comprises depositing a layer of titanium and a layer of gold onto each of the donor wafer, the separation layer, and the receiving wafer.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the layer of gold is thicker than the layer of titanium.

7. A waveguide structure for non-mechanical steering of an input laser beam having a laser wavelength to an output laser beam, the waveguide structure comprising:
a plurality of stacked parallel dielectric waveguides, each of the dielectric waveguides having a thickness that is less than one half of the laser wavelength; and
the plurality of stacked parallel dielectric waveguides including a plurality of electrodes configured to apply voltages across the plurality of stacked parallel dielectric waveguides, wherein each of the plurality of stacked parallel dielectric waveguides can be electrically phase modulated so that the output beam is deflected in a predictable manner.

8. The waveguide structure of claim 7 , wherein each of the plurality of stacked parallel dielectric waveguides further comprises a dielectric layer positioned between two metallization layers.

9. The waveguide structure of claim 8 , wherein a first of the two metallization layers further comprises a layer of titanium and a second of the two metallization layers further comprises a layer of gold.

10. The waveguide structure of claim 9 , wherein the layer of gold is thicker than the layer of titanium.

11. The waveguide structure of claim 7 , wherein the plurality of stacked parallel dielectric waveguides further comprises a first stacked parallel dielectric waveguide and a second stacked parallel dielectric waveguide, wherein the first stacked parallel dielectric waveguide is positioned abutting the second stacked parallel dielectric waveguide, wherein the first stacked parallel dielectric waveguide is oriented substantially orthogonal relative to the second stacked parallel dielectric waveguide.

12. The waveguide structure of claim 7 , further comprising control electronics connected to the plurality of stacked parallel dielectric waveguides, wherein the control electronics control voltage application to individual waveguides within the plurality of stacked parallel dielectric waveguides.

13. The waveguide structure of claim 7 , further comprising a fiber optics system configured to deliver the input laser beam to the plurality of stacked parallel dielectric waveguides.

Assignees

• Bae Systems Information And Electronics Systems Integration Inc
• Bae Sys Inf & Elect Sys Integ

Inventors

• Russo Peter N
• Jew Jeffrey L
• Moffitt Paul R

Classifications

• G02F1/2955 Primary

  by controlled diffraction or phased-array beam steering (controlled diffraction for optical waveguide switching G02F1/313) · CPC title

• G02F1/292

  by controlled diffraction or phased-array beam steering (controlled diffraction for optical switching G02F1/31) · CPC title

• G02B27/10

  Beam splitting or combining systems (polarising systems G02B27/28; mixing and splitting light signals using optical waveguides G02B6/28; {beam shaping, e.g. changing the cross-sectional area, by dividing or superposing multiple light beams G02B27/0905}) · CPC title

• G02B6/12

  of the integrated circuit kind (electric integrated circuits H10B, H10D84/00 - H10D89/00, H10F19/00, H10F39/00, H10H29/00, H10K19/00, H10K39/00, H10K59/00, H10N19/00, H10N39/00, H10N59/00, H10N69/00, H10N79/00, H10N89/00) · CPC title

• G02F2202/20

  LiNbO3, LiTaO3 · CPC title