Patent ID: 7006719

Claim:
A photonic integrated circuit (PIC) comprising: a plurality of monolithically integrated active and passive optically coupled components formed on a single chip; a plurality of modulated sources included as at least some of said active components, each of said modulated sources comprising a laser source each having a different wavelength on a predetermined wavelength grid providing a plurality of outputs along a laser source wavelength grid; an optical combiner included as at least one of said passive components having a predetermined wavelength passband for combining the modulated source outputs; a plurality of optical waveguide vernier outputs positioned laterally along a zero Brillouin zone output face of said optical combiner, said outputs each optically coupled to a waveguide extending from said optical combiner output face; a photodetector provided at an output end of each of said vernier output waveguides for providing an electrical output representative of optical power in each of said vernier outputs; said photodetector outputs employed to determine which vernier output comprises the optimum vernier output exhibiting the highest matching quality of the laser source wavelength grid to the passband of the optical combiner.