COUPLED WAVEGUIDE PHOTO DETECTOR

摘要

An embodiment of the invention provides a coupled waveguide photo detector device. Optically, the device includes an input waveguide. An output waveguide is coupled to the input waveguide with a nonuniform coupling coefficient in a coupling section. An absorber is included in the coupling section to convert an absorbed portion of optical radiation into photo current. The location of absorber and the optical radiation intensity pattern in the coupling section are set to control the maximum intensity of output power absorbed by the output waveguide to be within a predetermined limit that avoids saturation. The absorber is also part of a transmission line collector which has a phase and group velocity to match those of the optical wave in the coupling section such that currents collected by the transmission line collector add in phase as the optical wave propagates in the output waveguide.