Cascaded subarray design and control method for power efficient, thermal crosstalk optimized optical phased array

Thermo-optic phase shifters (TOPSs) are commonly used in large-scale silicon photonic integrated optical phased arrays (OPAs). However, fast-response TOPSs consume relatively high power; the elevated temperature floor in the dense region of the TOPSs introduces thermal crosstalk between optical paths, which undermines the control accuracy. We propose a combined method that involves subarray design in the optical power distribution network and array control method to predict, optimize, and redistribute the phase shifts and mitigates thermal crosstalk. Thermal simulations and an array control method for generic OPA models are discussed. A silicon photonic chip prototype of a 4 x 4 OPA with three-level cascaded subarrays is fabricated to demonstrate the proposed method. The experimental and statistical results show that the method effectively reduces the average total power consumption by 31%, the maximum local temperature by 18.4%, and the thermal crosstalk within the OPA.