Athermal Optical Phased Array

Optical phased arrays (OPA) are of growing interest in free space communication systems due to the need for high speed communication. Generally, design of OPAs using the Silicon On Insulator (SOI) platform will rely on the thermo-optic (TO) effect to tune the refractive index, thereby controlling the phase in each channel. However this makes the design sensitive to parasitic heat, and thermal cross-talk at scale. Instead of using thermal control, thermal tolerance is introduced by reducing the TO effect, and leveraging the electro-optic (EO) effect in lieu. Metamaterial techniques for the athermal design of optical waveguides and subwavelength structures are presented for the application of designing an OPA feed network. The design of compact and athermal grating antennas suitable for OPA configurations is also explored.