Patent — available for licensing
Serial Arrayed Waveguide Grating
A NASA invention available to explore as a licensing opportunity.
About this technology
Overview
Dispersive optical elements are important for many applications. In bulk, free-space optics, prisms, and gratings are often used. In optical waveguides, particularly in integrated photonics, arrayed waveguide gratings are most commonly used. AWGs split an optical signal into different wavelength channels. An AWG splits the optical signal into several parallel waveguides, which each have different optical path lengths. Each successive path increases in path length. The bigger the difference in path length, the better the optical resolution. However, there is a practical limitation to the resolution that can be achieved due to the ability to fit the long path lengths onto a photonics chip. The Serial Arrayed Waveguide Grating enables high resolution spectroscopy.