Efficient Phase Tuning of Silicon Photonic Devices Using Alignment Assisted Liquid Crystal Tuners

Abstract

In recent decades, the domain of silicon photonics (SiP) has emerged as a mature technology for photonic integrated circuits (PICs). The maturity in device and process technology has motivated the development of programmable circuits as a general-purpose system. One of the key elements in such a programmable circuit is the phase tuner. A low-power tuning scheme is essential to achieve large circuity with acceptable power dissipation. The widely used thermal phase shifters suffer from thermal crosstalk and power dissipation. In this regard, liquid crystal (LC) has seen immense interest due to its low power consumption and large anisotropy in its optical and electro-optic properties that can be stimulated by an external electric field [1]–[3].