Patent ID: 7212560

Claim:
A tunable external cavity laser diode using a variable optical deflector, comprising: a semiconductor optical amplifier generating beams having several wavelengths; a passive waveguide outputting the beams to be inclined and having a cross section according to a Wadsworth grating system such that diffracted beams propagate in parallel; a slab waveguide spreading in parallel the beams outputted from the passive waveguide as well as guiding the beams in a vertically confined manner; a concave diffraction grating having a concave light incident plane and diffracting the propagating beams from the slab waveguide to be parallel based on a wavelength; a reflective mirror formed on one side of the slab waveguide to reflect the parallel beams diffracted by the concave diffraction grating; and a variable optical deflector located between the concave diffraction grating and the reflective mirror, and having refractivity varying according to an electrical signal so that a beam having a specific wavelength among the beams diffracted by the concave diffraction grating is incident perpendicular to the reflective mirror, wherein the semiconductor optical amplifier, the diffraction grating, and the variable optical deflector are integrated into the slab waveguide.