Impact of phase and amplitude variations in the performance of an InP optical phased array

We present a simulation study of a non-ideal optical phased array (OPA) with 8 channels operating at 1550nm, which has amplitude and phase control. We consider an OPA which suffers from etching lag effect, as well as phase and amplitude variations. The ideal OPA response produces a far field with 7 resolvable spots and -19.6dB diffraction sidelobes suppression ratio (SSR). When considering a random phase variation of ±20% of π rad, the number of resolvable spots remains unchanged and the SSR is <-11dB. Therefore, we conclude that the OPA performance is not significantly degraded for such strong phase variations. Furthermore, we show that typical voltage dependent electro-absorption losses of phase shifters can be tolerated, thereby simplifying architectures for gain control.