In various embodiments, an apparatus comprises a composite backplane that modulates light from a light source, where the composite backplane comprises an electronics layer disposed on a substrate, a photonics integrated circuit (IC) layer disposed on the electronics layer that causes light from the light source to propagate in a first direction, and an active light modulation (ALM) interface layer disposed on the photonics IC layer controls an ALM interface layer in order to control the light propagating in the first direction.