Potentially Low-Cost Widely Tunable Laser Consisting of a Semiconductor Optical Amplifier Connected Directly to a Silica Waveguide Grating Router

We present a widely tunable laser consisting of a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) glued directly to a silica waveguide grating router, that can be packaged without precise alignments or air gaps. Furthermore, the SOA does not need polarization independence or vertical spot-size conversion. However, issues regarding thermooptic power consumption and modal stability remain to be solved.