IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL. 24, NO.

6, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 8300707

Design Considerations of Silicon Nitride

Optical Phased Array for Visible
Light Communications
Shahryar Sabouri , Student Member, IEEE, and Kambiz Jamshidi, Member, IEEE

Abstract—Design considerations and guidelines for utilizing an

array of silicon nitride grating couplers for point-to-point commu-
nication with the ability of two-dimensional (2-D) beam steering
are investigated using numerical simulations. A single grating cou-
pler is designed to enable efficient and directional radiation. The
spacing of couplers in the array is optimized in order to decrease
the level of the cross-talk (<−65 dB) as well as reducing the num-
ber of unwanted side lobes. The number of elements in an array
is examined for both 1-D and 2-D designs in order to achieve effi-
cient radiation. Moreover, a phased array of 50 elements, with an
aperture area of 40 µm × 75 µm, is proposed taking into account
the tradeoff between the footprint and radiation efficiency. The ra-
diation pattern of the designed array is investigated with full-wave
simulation and compared to theoretical expectations. Beam steer-
ing in azimuth angle, using thermo-optical phase shifters is studied.
Beam steering in polar angle is studied by exploiting wavelength
tuning. The loss of the free space link regarding the designed array
in different distances is obtained to study the range of the optical
wireless communication link.
Index Terms—Antenna arrays, beam steering, optical Fig. 1. 1-D phased array antenna arrangement. d represents the center-to-
communication. center distances between neighboring grating couplers.

I. INTRODUCTION of optical phased arrays resemble those of microwave arrays,

PTICAL wireless (OW) communication system is a which tune the phase between array elements to change beam
O new technique proposed recently to transmit information
through free space. In general, OW systems are identical to RF
direction. An OPA system is fed by a laser source as an input
and the optical signal will then be divided into several branches
wireless ones, with the advantage of being able to provide links ending with emitters (grating couplers or end-fire waveguides).
with channel rates up to 10 Gb/s [1], [2]. The primary purpose For each branch and behind the grating coupler, a phase shifter
of optical antenna and LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is embedded to tune the phase (see Fig. 1). Three types of phase
is to investigate a counterpart of RF antenna and RADAR but shifters that have been reported earlier are using thermo-optic,
in visible, IR, and near IR. Though the approach is still at a electro-optic, and optomechanical technologies [3]. The feasi-
developing stage, the increase of interest in it has resulted in bility of OPAs, especially for silicon-based designed models,
a new field of research known as optical phased arrays (OPA). has recently been studied [4]–[7]. Nevertheless, we believe sili-
The OPAs must be able to not only radiate directionally but also con nitride (SiN) is a suitable candidate to be used in the visible
steer the beam rapidly in a wide angle. The operating principles range due to their transparency in the range. This preference is
also justified by the fact that in principle, SiN waveguides can be
realized with two orders of magnitude fewer losses (∼1 dB/m)
Manuscript received January 31, 2018; revised April 1, 2018; accepted May in comparison to silicon waveguides (1 to 2 dB/cm) [8].
7, 2018. Date of publication May 18, 2018; date of current version June 5, 2018.
This work was supported by the German Research Foundation in the context of Grating couplers are utilized to function as in-/out- coupling
the “Enhancing Nonlinear Kerr effect in Silicon Nitride Waveguides” project. elements for the interface between the optical fiber and photonic
(Corresponding author: Shahryar Sabouri.) integrated circuits. These couplers are expected to be widely
The authors are with the Integrated Photonic Devices Group, Faculty of
Electrical and Computer Engineering, Technical University of Dresden, Dres- employed for point-to-point communications, projection and
den 01069, Germany (e-mail:, [email protected]; k.jamshidi@ imaging systems, because of their ability to convert waveguide
ieee.org). mode into radiation mode, or vice versa [9]. In order to obtain
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. higher and more directed upward radiations, some optimization
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JSTQE.2018.2836991 methods such as an asymmetric grating and multilayer substrate
1077-260X © 2018 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.

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8300707 IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL. 24, NO. 6, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018

Fig. 3. Realized gain and full width half maximum of the main beam of far
field radiation versus length of a silicon nitride grating coupler.
Fig. 2. Schematic view of a grating coupler and its radiated beam direction.
Azimuth angle is depicted with ψ and θ refers to polar angle. TABLE I
RADIATION CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MAIN BEAM FOR SINGLE AND
50-ELEMENT ARRAY GRATING COUPLERS
reflectors have been studied [10], [11]. Not all these methods,
however, can be realized in a CMOS compatible fabrication
process.
In this paper, we study the feasibility of using a 1D array of
silicon nitride grating couplers on SOI platform for point-to-
point communications in the visible range. The rest of the paper
is organized as follows. Section II explains the design process
of a single grating coupler, as an antenna, which enables obtain-
ing high upward radiation. The theoretical challenges, such as
cross-talk and unwanted side lobes, of spacing elements in the
array along with the effect of the number of elements in both
1-D and 2-D array structures are subjects of discussion in Sec-
tion III. For the proposed array model in chapter 4, thermo-optic
phase shifters are utilized for beam steering in azimuth angle where nef f and nt are the effective refractive index of guided
and the radiation pattern of OPA is compared with theoretical wave and the refractive index of top layer (here is air), respec-
expectations. In Section V, the capability of beam steering, in tively. λ0 is the free-space wavelength and θn is the angle for
polar angle, using wavelength tuning has been studied for a the nth order of diffraction of the grating.
specific array of grating couplers. Section VI concluded with Out of plane radiation of the guided beam profile in a grating
presenting the received power from proposed OPA for different coupler decays exponentially. Decay length (Ld ) is the parame-
ranges of links. Different parameters of the designed structure, ter that explains such behavior in [13]:
 
such as realized gain, beam width, beam efficiency and side lobe 2
level as well as communication range and transmitted power are P (x) = P0 exp − .x (2)
Ld
studied numerically within the article.
where P0 is the total power of the initial guided light. Most
II. GRATING COUPLER OPTIMIZATION often, a grating coupler with a relatively short length is not able
to radiate all guided wave into space; therefore, its length has
A single grating coupler is designed using a 300 nm thick been studied. By increasing the length of the grating coupler,
waveguide layer by partially etching the waveguide by 150 nm. the radiation pattern has been numerically studied. The gain and
In order to achieve efficient outcoupling, the filling factor of FWHM (in θ) are the varying parameters for different lengths,
the grating coupler is chosen as 50% [11]. Full-wave finite which are presented in Fig. 3. As the figure shows the number
difference time domain (FDTD) method in 3D is employed of periods will be increased until the radiation pattern of grating
to numerically simulate the structures. Using a well-known coupler reaches its saturated point. In a length of 130 periods, the
equation (1), grating period (Λ) of 300 nm is obtained, which re- far field pattern of the grating coupler meets its highest realized
sults in the radiation of a single beam in the first order of diffrac- gain (26.49 dB) and narrowest full width half maximum beam
tion into the air. As shown in Fig. 2, the waveguide has a 2 μm width (1.5°), as shown in Table I. Increasing the length after this
silicon dioxide Bottom-cladding to reduced leakage into the saturated point has no observable effect on neither the gain nor
substrate [13]. the beam width. Finally, a length of about 40 μm is considered
λ0 for the single grating coupler. The length of 10 μm (40 periods),
Λ= for n = 0, ±1, ±2, . . . (1)
nef f − nt sinθn however, is taken into account for 2-D array study in the next

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SABOURI AND JAMSHIDI: DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS OF SILICON NITRIDE OPTICAL PHASED ARRAY 8300707

Fig. 5. Far field pattern of single grating coupler and its 50-element array
model in ψ angle. Positions of unwanted grating lobes are represented in the
pattern.

Fig. 4. Cross-coupling between two waveguides for lengths of 10 μm and

50 μm. Distance between waveguides are considered 300 nm and 500 nm.
Dashed plots refer to the waveguides with 1 μm top oxide cladding.

section. Fig. 3 represents the behavior of FWHM and realized

gain to the length of the grating coupler. The results of the
simulation for the gain is similar to the exponential trend of the
power in (2).
Fig. 6. Top-view of the 2D array structure. Element spacing in x and y axes
III. ARRAY DESIGN are 15 μm and 1.5 μm, respectively.
The radiation pattern of an antenna array is the product of
each element pattern multiplied by the array factor. Normalized 300 nm to 500 nm, the coupling decreases from −40 dB to
array factor is a periodic function in X with a period of 2π. −65 dB in the wavelength of 660 nm. As presented in Fig. 4,
   applying silicon dioxide as top cladding (dashed graphs), re-
1  sin N X2  duces the core-clad contrast resulting in higher cross-coupling.
|AF (X)| =     (3a)
Γ  sin X2  In an array of waveguides, especially in sub-wavelength spacing,
the effect of second-, third-, or nth-nearest waveguides could be
X even larger than the effect of neighboring waveguide [15]. This
= 1/2 (kdcos ψ + β) (3b)
2 effect, however, is not considered in this study.
where N is the number of elements and k is the wave vector. ψ The number of side lobes and their distances from the main
is the initial angle between the main beam and Y axis, which is beam play a vital role in the field of view (FOV) of the designing
zero here (see Fig. 2). d and β are the center-to-center distance transceivers. Consequently, in order to reduce the number of
and phase difference between elements, respectively. Since X is side lobes on one hand (based on (3)), and to suppress the cross-
not a real angle, it can go larger than 2π or less than 0. In these coupling effect (Fig. 4) on the other hand, we considered an
cases |AF(X)| shows unwanted ‘grating lobe(s)’ [14]. array of 50 grating couplers with a center-to-center spacing of
around 2.3 λ (pitch = 500 nm and cross-coupling <−60 dB). As
A. Spacing and Cross-Coupling shown in Fig. 5, this element spacing results in only two higher
order side lobes in the far field pattern of the designed array.
In order to design a uniform spaced array, the center-to- Theoretically, the position of these side lobes can be derived
center distance between elements (see Fig. 1) must be less from (3b). When Ψ/2 is ±mπ, we can write:
than half of the free space wavelength. This is the condition  
that guarantees a radiation pattern with only a main beam and λ
ψm ax = cos−1 (−β ± 2mπ) (4)
no appearance of any side lobes. However, the limitation of 2πd
d < λ/2 is not easily applicable to an OPA. Firstly, because of
the mode confinement, the waveguide has some restrictions in ψm ax defines the location of the secondary and higher order side
the dimension of its width. Moreover, by decreasing the distance lobes. Based on (4) and array spacing of d = 2.3 λ, the position
between the waveguides, the cross-coupling effect increases. of the side lobes must be on ±28.36° and ±63.89° which are
To reach a promising mode confinement, the widths of both close to the simulation results shown in Fig. 5. However, (4) is
waveguides and grating couplers are 1 μm. The cross-coupling written for ideal dipole antenna and the mutual coupling effect
between two waveguides is studied numerically. Fig. 4 shows is not considered in the formula.
the effect of waveguide spacing (pitch) and cladding material Comparing the results for single- and array-design in Table I,
on the cross-coupling. The coupling is studied for two lengths one can see the increase of the gain up to 42.7 dB on one hand,
(Lc = 10 μm and Lc = 50 μm). By increasing the pitch from and the decrease in beam width from 1.5° to 0.4° on the other

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8300707 IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL. 24, NO. 6, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018

Fig. 7. Radiation properties of 1D-array of grating couplers with the length of 40 periods (a) and 135 periods (b). Radiation properties of 2D-array of grating
couplers with 15 elements (c) and 50 elements (d). L is the length of each grating coupler. N and M referring the number of elements in the directions of x and y.

hand. It should be noted however that the increase in the value red graph and dashed green graph in Fig. 7(b), where 15 grating
of side lobe level is caused by the above mentioned unwanted couplers with a length of 12 μm (L = 40 periods) are placed in a
secondary lobes. As the array modification stays along the 1D-array structure. On contrary, changing the number of ele-
Y-axis, the radiation characteristic in θ remained unchanged ments in x-direction has an effect on the beam size in the angle
(see Table I). of θ (see Fig. 7(c) and (d)). For example, a 1D-array of 50 el-
ements (A1×50 ) shows a beam spot size of 3° × 0.4°, while a
design of A6×50 shows a circular spot of 0.4° × 0.4°. As a result,
B. 2D Array Consideration by adjusting N and L one can determine the size of the beam in
Thus far, the length of single element and spacing between θ, and M is the parameter which can define the beam size in ψ.
them have been studied regarding an optimized 1D array. Here, In addition, increasing all of these parameters simultaneously
as shown in Fig. 6 we have considered both 1D- and 2D-array increases the distance range of the antenna. Ultimately, a bigger
of grating couplers. The far field pattern has been observed radiating area (effective area) results in a higher gain for the
by varying the number of elements in both x- and y-axes. The antenna.
element-spacing in x- and y-axes are set to be 15 μm and 1.5 μm,
respectively. Fig. 7(a) and (b) refer to the 1D-array design of
two type of grating couplers: One has the optimized length IV. PHASE TUNING
of 135 periods (for maximized radiation) and the other has a Steering the main radiation beam of the array antenna along
length of 40 periods. By increasing the number of elements ψ angle needs controlling the phase of each channel [16], [17].
in y-direction (M), the antenna gain can be increased and the One alternative is to use a thermo-optical phase shifter for this
beam width in ψ angle can be narrowed. It can be observed purpose. As shown in Fig. 8, temperature tuning has been used
that the length of elements has no effect on the width of the by applying voltage on a copper wire. In order to obtain the de-
radiated beam along ψ angle, but on θ (see Fig. 7(a) and (b)). sired resistivity, length of the wire is selected to be 300 μm and
For instance, if a beam with a circular spot (1.5° × 1.5°) is its cross-section area as 300 × 500 nm2 . As shown in Fig. 8(a)
expected, the appropriate design could be the intersection of the and (b), the wire is located parallel to the silicon nitride wave-

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SABOURI AND JAMSHIDI: DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS OF SILICON NITRIDE OPTICAL PHASED ARRAY 8300707

TABLE II
TEMPERATURE AND PHASE CHANGE DUE TO DESIGNED COPPER HEATER WITH
0.3 MM LENGTH ABOVE THE WAVEGUIDE

Fig. 9. Far field pattern of 50-element array model in ψ angle by applying 0

to π phase shift on each element. The graph on top-left is the magnification of
the main beam steering.

sufficiently far from the waveguide in order to have no effect on

the guiding light. The chosen distances in this study guarantee
such a condition. As it is shown in Fig. 8(c), the spacing between
phase shifters are considered far enough to avoid heat transfer
Fig. 8. Temperature distribution out of a biased copper wire placed on top of
to the neighboring heater. Based on the results of Table II, the
the silicon nitride waveguide and buried in silicon dioxide. Simulations have spacing of at least 20 μm needs to be considered between the
been done in CST MPHYSICS STUDIO (a). Side-view of the designed phase phase shifters. After phase shifters, the distance between the
shifters (b). Top-view of the phased array system representing the connection
between phase shifters and grating couplers (c).
waveguides should be narrowed down to the distances required
for beam steering as shown in Fig. 8(c).
Considering the propagating phase delay which is shown in
guide and buried in silicon dioxide. Equation (5) represents the
Fig. 8(c), different phase delays with the steps of π/6 are ap-
phase change as a function of temperature [18]:
plied to the designed OPA and the response of the array pattern
2πD dn to these different phase shifts is depicted in Fig. 9. Theoreti-
ΔΦ = ΔT (5)
λ0 dT cally, by applying π-phase shift, a beam steering in the range
of ±12.7° can be achieved. However, as the main beam steers
where D is the length of the device, λ0 is the free-space wave- wider, the more enhanced secondary beam is observed, as shown
length (here 660 nm), ΔT is the change in the temperature of in Fig. 9. The enhanced secondary beam, which is also closer to
the waveguide, dn/dT is thermo-optic coefficient assumed to be the main beam, results in a narrower field of view (FOV), which
(2.45 ± 0.09) × 10−5 for silicon nitride [19]. must be considered in the design of transceivers for different
Table II represents the monitored temperature for different applications.
distances from the wire after applying a voltage of 1 V on the
wire. To apply π phase shift along 300 μm-waveguide, a temper-
V. WAVELENGTH TUNING
ature increase of about 44 K is required, which can be realized
by embedding the copper heater 1 μm above the waveguide and For vertical beam steering along polar (θ) angle (see Fig. 10)
a power consumption of Pπ = 30.9 mW (see Fig. 8(a)). Fig. 8(b) one alternative would be to design a 2-D array of grating
represents the side-view of the designed phase shifters and their couplers similar to studies in [3]–[5]. This method, however,
connectivity to the DC electrodes. The copper wire needs to be cannot offer a wide-angle beam steering possibility, due to the

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8300707 IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL. 24, NO. 6, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018

TABLE IV
RECEIVED POWER AND GEOMETRIC LOSS OF THE FREE SPACE LINK FOR
DIFFERENT DISTANCES

VI. FREE SPACE LINK

To study the feasibility of the proposed OPA for a short-range
communication, the losses in a free space link must be consid-
ered. Since for the targeting wavelength (660 nm) absorption
Fig. 10. Radiation pattern for θ angle in the plane ψ = 0 for array of 50
and scattering losses are around 0.01 dB/km [20], atmospheric
grating couplers in different wavelengths. Peak of main beam direction in θ is attenuation does not have a significant effect on links in the
presented for each pattern. range of meters. Therefore, distance and beam divergence must
be taken into account. The gain of an antenna depends on the ef-
TABLE III
fective total radiating aperture and not on the element’s structure
RADIATION PROPERTIES OF 50-ELEMENT ARRAY ANTENNA FOR DIFFERENT or spacing. In a wireless system where the alignment between
WAVELENGTHS transmitter and receiver is perfectly set, the geometric loss can
be written as:
 
DR
LG = −20log (6)
DT + Rθdiv

where DR and DT are the diameters of receiver and trans-

mitter, respectively. θdiv is the divergence angle of the Gaus-
sian beam [20], which, here is FWHM of the main beam (see
Table I). Table IV presents the losses of the free space link for
different distances by considering the proposed OPA as both
transmitter and receiver. Considering 15 dBm (32 mW) as the
input power, the received power from the proposed transmitter
parallelogram lattice structure of the array [3]. Subsequently, (50-elements array) is reported.
we attempt to find another alternative which benefits from grat-
ing coupler intrinsic attitude. Based on (1), diffraction angles of
a grating coupler are highly wavelength dependent. Therefore, VII. CONCLUSION
wavelength tuning can also be used. For a single grating cou- The design guidelines and constraints of a 1-D array of silicon
pler, varying the wavelength varies the orientation of its radiated nitride grating couplers have been studied in order to be used
beam. Fig. 10 represents far-field patterns, in polar angle, of the for point-to-point optical wireless communications. The length
earlier designed 50-elements array for different wavelengths of of a single grating coupler is optimized to reach its saturated
in-coupled light. One can see directionality variation of the main radiation point. Element spacing of the phased array is optimized
beam around 30° for 120 nm wavelength range. However, this with respect to the cross-talk effect and unwanted radiation
range of wavelength tuning may not be applicable to all con- side lobes. The cross-coupling of −65 dB in 50 μm length is
ventional lasers as a source. Thus, the beam steering of 15.6° obtained. A spacing of 2.3 λ is used for the array design which
is still reachable for 60 nm wavelength tuning. Although beam results in only two side lobes, positioned on ±26.2° and ±61.6°,
steering in terms of the main beam’s direction is satisfying, the in the radiation pattern of the array. The effect of the number of
radiation characteristic is not the same for all wavelengths. A elements in 1-D and 2-D arrays is studied to obtain the shape
comparison of radiation parameters for different wavelengths is and size of the beam. For beam steering in azimuthal angle,
shown in Table III. The concentrated power of the main beam to a thermo-optic phase shifter is studied to apply up to π phase
the whole radiated power is reported as beam efficiency, which shift on each channel of the array by a power consumption of
has its lowest value for 630 nm-wavelength (17%) and highest Pπ = 30.9 mW which would result in ±12.7° beam steering in
one for 600 nm (59%). Positive side-lobe level for the wave- Azimuth angle. Beam steering of around 15.6° in polar angle is
length of 600 nm indicates more leakage into the substrate than obtained using wavelength tuning in a range of 60 nm. The link
upward radiation directed in the main beam. The variation of budget and loss of the free space link is calculated for various
wavelength affects the beam width but not so as to produce a distances to find the range which can be used for optical wireless
considerable change. communications.

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SABOURI AND JAMSHIDI: DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS OF SILICON NITRIDE OPTICAL PHASED ARRAY 8300707

ACKNOWLEDGMENT [16] S. Sabouri et al., “1-D array of silicon nitride grating couplers for visible
light communications,” in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Wireless Sp. Extreme
The authors thank R. Hosseini and M. Namdari for their Environ., Sep. 2016, pp. 73–76.
scientific support during this research and also S. Waladan and [17] S. Sabouri et al., “Study of an array of grating couplers for wire-
less optical communications,” in Proc. SPIE, Feb. 2017, vol. 10107,
M. Afkhami who helped with proofreading this paper. p. 101070S–1.
[18] N. C. Harris et al., “Efficient, compact and low loss thermo-optic phase
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