Abstract

Integrated Silicon Photonics leverages light-speed operation with lower power and higher data rates than electronic counterparts. To achieve this, light is sent through a silicon circuit, where it is manipulated to perform various operations. Primarily, the light for these circuits comes from laser sources. Semiconductor lasers are typically used for their small form factor and ability to be heterogeneously integrated into larger, more complex systems. Because the optical phase and wavelength of light respond to minute changes in local refractive index, light is increasingly used for high-sensitivity sensing in integrated photonic circuit applications. As such, schemes that integrate the laser into larger integrated photonic systems would enable inline monitoring across a wide array of applications in sensor fields, such as biological sensing. In the general sense, some form of biosensor requires wavelength sweeps to detect a change and correlate it with a biological process occurring within the circuit/system. To achieve smooth, linear wavelength sweeps, laser sources need to be calibrated over a specified range. A typical integrated laser source configuration is a distributed bragg reflector (DBR), which uses two different structures to control the output wavelength. Both the phase current, controlling the cavity's phase, and the grating current, which controls the filter, are the wavelength control variables. Calibration requires finding the correct combination of grating and phase currents to traverse the 2-dimensional wavelength space. Measuring the wavelength of a laser source is typically not trivial, and an expensive lab-grade wavemeter is required. In this thesis, an alternative that uses an integrated photonic circuit to extract the laser wavelength was developed, and furthermore, a calibration algorithm is demonstrated that works with both cases: (i) the lab-grade wavemeter instrument and (ii) the photonic integrated circuit implementation of a wavemeter to deliver laser calibration with a custom laser driver and a custom-made data collection system.

Publication Date

8-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Computer Engineering (MS)

Department, Program, or Center

Computer Engineering

College

Kate Gleason College of Engineering

Advisor

Stefan Preble

Advisor/Committee Member

Dorin Patru

Advisor/Committee Member

Roy Melton

Comments

This thesis has been embargoed. The full-text will be available on or around 8/13/2027.

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

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