Patent 7394949 was granted and assigned to Kotura, Inc. on July, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
An optical device includes a phase modulator positioned along a branch waveguide of a mach-zehnder interferometer. The phase modulator includes an n-type region having a proximity to a p-type region that causes a depletion region to form when a bias is not applied to the modulator. The depletion region is at least partially positioned in a light signal carrying region of the waveguide.