Patents by Inventor Christopher Doerr

Christopher Doerr has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 10797462
    Abstract: Aspects of the present application are related to an Er-doped waveguide amplifier (EDWA) structure integrated in an uncooled silicon photonic transceiver and methods for fabricating the same. In some embodiments, the structure comprises three layers of waveguides: silicon, silicon nitride and Er-doped dielectric. The three layers of waveguides are integrated with an uncooled 980-nm pump laser. In some embodiments, the Er-doped dielectric waveguides are fully etched.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 6, 2020
    Assignee: Acacia Communications, Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher Doerr, Long Chen, Mohamadreza Banaee, Xingyu Zhang
  • Patent number: 10714894
    Abstract: In a first embodiment, an external cavity tunable laser, comprising a silicon photonics circuit comprising one or more resonators having one or more p-i-n junctions; wherein a voltage is applied to one or more of the p-i-n junctions. In a second embodiment, a method of operating an external cavity tunable laser, comprising sweeping out free-carriers from a resonator of the tunable laser by applying a voltage to a p-i-n junction of a waveguide of the resonator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 14, 2020
    Assignee: Acacia Communications, Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher Doerr, Li Chen, Long Chen
  • Patent number: 10623102
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are techniques, methods, structures and apparatus that provide a silicon photonics multicarrier optical transceiver wherein both the transmitter and receiver are integrated on a single silicon chip and which generates a plurality of carriers through the effect of an on-chip modulator, amplifies the optical power of the carriers through the effect of an off-chip amplifier, and generates M orthogonal sets of carriers through the effect of an on-chip basis former.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2020
    Assignee: Acacia Communications, Inc.
    Inventor: Christopher Doerr
  • Patent number: 10578799
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are designs, structures and techniques for advanced packaging of multi-function photonic integrated circuits that allow such high-performance multi-function photonic integrated circuits to be co-packaged with a high-performance multi-function ASIC thereby significantly reducing strenuous interconnect challenges and lowering costs, power and size of the overall devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2020
    Assignee: Acaia Communications
    Inventors: Christopher Doerr, Eric Swanson, Diedrik Vermeulen, Saeid Azemati, Jon Stahl
  • Patent number: 10571633
    Abstract: Cantilevered waveguides suspended above an air cavity in an underlying substrate are described. The waveguide is formed by patterning a waveguide layer in some embodiments, and the air cavity is formed by etching the substrate beneath the waveguide. The topside of the air cavity may be sealed by filling the openings used to etch the cavity with a sealant, such as optical epoxy. In some embodiments, the waveguide is a facet coupler, positioned at a chip facet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2020
    Assignee: Acacia Communications, Inc.
    Inventors: Long Chen, Christopher Doerr, Li Chen
  • Patent number: 10554014
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for removing free carriers from a waveguide using a p type semiconductor and an n type semiconductor connected by a short.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2020
    Assignee: Acacia Communications, Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher Doerr, Li Chen, Long Chen
  • Patent number: 10536219
    Abstract: Disclosed are structures and methods for a monolithic silicon (Si) coherent transceiver with integrated laser and gain elements wherein an InP chip is bonded to the Si chip in a recess formed in that Si chip.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 14, 2020
    Assignee: Acacia Communications, Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher Doerr, Long Chen
  • Patent number: 10535571
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are methods, structures, and devices for wafer scale testing of photonic integrated circuits.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 23, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 14, 2020
    Assignee: Acacia Communications, Inc.
    Inventors: Diedrik Vermeulen, Long Chen, Christopher Doerr
  • Patent number: 10488682
    Abstract: Disclosed are structures and methods for CMOS drivers that drive silicon optical push-pull Mach-Zehnder modulators (MZMs) with twice the drive voltage per interferometer arm as with prior art designs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 2, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: Acacia Communications, Inc.
    Inventor: Christopher Doerr
  • Patent number: 10488683
    Abstract: In an embodiment, an optical modulator comprising an optical path having at least one optical waveguide, and an impedance formed along the optical path, wherein the impedance comprises a capacitance that increases along the optical path. In another embodiment, a method for increasing bandwidth of an optical modulator by applying a first voltage applied to a beginning of a resistive line. and applying a second voltage applied to an end of the resistive line; wherein the first voltage is less than the second voltage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: Acacia Communications, Inc.
    Inventor: Christopher Doerr
  • Patent number: 10468851
    Abstract: A tunable laser that includes an array of parallel optical amplifiers is described. The laser may also include an intracavity N×M coupler that couples power between a cavity mirror and the array of parallel optical amplifiers. Phase adjusters in optical paths between the N×M coupler and the optical amplifiers can be used to adjust an amount of power output from M?1 ports of the N×M coupler. A tunable wavelength filter is incorporated in the laser cavity to select a lasing wavelength.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2019
    Assignee: Acacia Communications, Inc.
    Inventor: Christopher Doerr
  • Publication number: 20190310071
    Abstract: Optical coherent receiver arrays are described. The optical coherent receiver arrays include an integrated array of photodetectors separated by integrated mirrors which may cause interference of received free space optical and local oscillator signals. The mirrors may serve as splitters, helping to align the received signal and local oscillator to cause interference. The photodetectors of the optical coherent receiver array may be electrically coupled in various manners to read out the signals. The optical coherent receiver array may be implemented in an optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging system in some embodiments.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 14, 2019
    Publication date: October 10, 2019
    Applicant: Acacia Communications, Inc.
    Inventor: Christopher Doerr
  • Publication number: 20190293881
    Abstract: An integrated wavelength division multiplexer is described. The integrated wavelength division multiplexer may include a first waveguide core defining a first propagation axis and configured to guide light of a first wavelength and light of a second wavelength, and a second waveguide core defining a second propagation axis and configured to guide the light of the second wavelength. A first portion of the second propagation axis for which the first waveguide core and second waveguide core may be overlapping is oriented at a non-zero angle relative to the first propagation axis. The first waveguide core and second waveguide core may be configured relative to each other to adiabatically couple the light of the second wavelength between the first and second waveguide cores.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 14, 2019
    Publication date: September 26, 2019
    Applicant: Acacia Communications, Inc.
    Inventors: Long Chen, Christopher Doerr, Li Chen
  • Patent number: 10416381
    Abstract: A facet optical coupler, and techniques for forming a facet optical coupler, that includes a waveguide disposed in a trench of a substrate are described. The substrate may be a silicon substrate in some embodiments. A cladding material is first disposed in the trench, and the waveguide is disposed on the cladding material in the trench.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 17, 2019
    Assignee: Acacia Communications, Inc.
    Inventors: Long Chen, Christopher Doerr
  • Patent number: 10416380
    Abstract: Techniques for forming a photonic device that includes a suspended photonic structure suspended over a silicon substrate are described. A sealed cavity is positioned between the silicon substrate and the photonic structure, and one or more regions of dielectric material act to seal the cavity. Additional structure(s) may be formed on top of the dielectric material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 17, 2019
    Assignee: Acacia Communications, Inc.
    Inventors: Li Chen, Long Chen, Christopher Doerr
  • Patent number: 10394058
    Abstract: Optical modulators and modulation techniques for advanced optical modulation formats are described. An optical modulator may include two optical modulators in parallel optical paths, and optical powers in the two paths may be unequal. Polarization in the two paths may be orthogonal, and modulated outputs from each path may be combined to produce multilevel modulation formats.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 27, 2019
    Assignee: Acacia Communications, Inc.
    Inventors: Diedrik Vermeulen, Christopher Doerr
  • Patent number: 10389448
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are techniques, methods, structures and apparatus that provide a silicon photonics multicarrier optical transceiver wherein both the transmitter and receiver are integrated on a single silicon chip and which generates a plurality of carriers through the effect of an on-chip modulator, amplifies the optical power of the carriers through the effect of an off-chip amplifier, and generates M orthogonal sets of carriers through the effect of an on-chip basis former.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 4, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 20, 2019
    Assignee: Acacia Communications, Inc.
    Inventor: Christopher Doerr
  • Patent number: 10345525
    Abstract: Photonic integrated circuits including controllable cantilevers are described. Such photonic integrated circuits may be used in connection with other optical devices, in which light is transferred between the photonic integrated circuit and one of these optical device. The photonic integrated circuit may comprise an optical waveguide having an end disposed proximate to a facet of the cantilever. The orientation of the cantilever may be actively controlled in one or two dimensions, thus adjusting the orientation of the optical waveguide. Actuation of the cantilever may be performed, for example, thermally and/or electrostatically. Orientation of the cantilever may be performed in such a way to align the optical waveguide with an optical device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 9, 2019
    Assignee: Acacia Communications, Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher Doerr, Li Chen, Long Chen
  • Patent number: 10284300
    Abstract: Disclosed are structures and methods for a monolithic silicon (Si) coherent transceiver with integrated laser and gain elements wherein an InP chip is bonded to the Si chip in a recess formed in that Si chip.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2019
    Assignee: Acacia Communications, Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher Doerr, Long Chen
  • Patent number: 10268055
    Abstract: A method for making an apparatus, a system, and apparatus, the apparatus and system each comprising a substrate with a top side, wherein the substrate has a set of cavities in the top side of the substrate, wherein the substrate has a set of conductive elements on the top side of the substrate arranged to electrically couple with a set of conductive elements of a photonic integrated circuit (PIC), wherein each cavity of the set of cavities when coupled to the PIC creates a surface tension when exposed to an underfill to cause the underfill to flow around each cavity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2019
    Assignee: Acacia Communications, Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher Doerr, Long Chen, John Heanue, Momchil T. Mihnev