Low switching power silica-based super high delta thermo-optic switch with heat insulating grooves

Variable optical attenuator fabricated by direct uv writing

“…The minimum losses are achieved for an applied power of 1.2 W and are just 0.1-0.2 dB higher than the insertion loss of a straight reference waveguide. The power required for a phase shift is 0.65 W. With a larger buffer layer thickness and by etching heat-insulating grooves around the heaters, it is possible to reduce this power requirement by roughly an order of magnitude [16]. The loss curves show that the interferometer with no power applied is unbalanced by 0.1 rad, in spite of our attempts to perform the UV writing identically for the two arms.…”

“…The most effective way of reducing this parameter is to etch stress-releasing grooves on both sides of the electrodes [17]. This also lowers the lateral heat dispersion, resulting in a lower power consumption and faster response time [16]. Unfortunately, in our experiments, we did not have access to this option.…”

“…However, the increase is only 0.1 dB, which may be acceptable in light of the much larger PDL reduction at higher attenuation levels. Even though we have demonstrated significant PDL reduction with UV trimming, we consider stress-releasing grooves to be a more cost-effective solution for large-scale production, because it does not require measurement of the MZI imbalance and because it also lowers the power requirements [16].…”

Optical signal processing using integrated multi-element SOA–MZI switch arrays for packet switching

“…4d, only one Peltier cooling element is required for dissipating the 5 W generated when all the SOAs are biased simultaneously. There is also heat generated from the thermo-optic phase-shifters on the motherboard (used to control the MZI phase bias) but this can be minimised by trenching the silica at these points in the circuit [56].…”

Nanophotonics-quantum dots, photonic crystals, and optical silicon circuits: An excursion into the optical behavior of very small things

“…Phase-shifting in waveguides (i.e., the adjustment of the phase of optical wavefronts in a circuit) is traditionally done using thermooptic phase-shifters that heat the waveguide material to change its refractive index. These thermo-optic devices suffer from high power consumption, thermal crosstalk, and relatively low speed [18]. Electrostatically actuated MEMS devices are an attractive alternative for waveguide switching applications because of their inherently low power consumption.…”