Patent ID: 7813032

Claim:
A method to control phase shift in a Planar Lightwave Circuit (PLC) for demodulating Differential Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (DQPSK) comprising two Mach-Zehnder interferometers, each having two arm waveguides having different lengths with respect to each other to receive a split DQPSK signal and having heaters placed on the two arm waveguides, the method comprising the steps of: (first step) supplying electricity to at least one predetermined heater on the two arm waveguides of each Mach-Zehnder interferometer such that Polarization Dependent wavelength (PDλ) is reduced as electricity is supplied to the predetermined heaters; (second step) inserting a half-wave plate in the two arm waveguides of each Mach-Zehnder interferometer after PDλ is reduced in the first step; (third step) supplying electricity to the predetermined heater on the at least one of the two Mach-Zehnder interferometers used in the first step to control phases of the DQPSK signals after the half-wave plates are inserted.