Reconfigurable silicon thermo-optical ring resonator switch based on Vernier effect control

Abstract

A proof-of-concept for a new and entirely CMOS compatible thermo-optic reconfigurable switch based on a coupled ring resonator structure is experimentally demonstrated in this paper. Preliminary results show that a single optical device is capable of combining several functionalities, such as tunable filtering, non-blocking switching and reconfigurability, in a single device with compact footprint (~50µm x 30µm).

Compact and low power consumption tunable photonic crystal nanobeam cavity

“…For the past years, several research groups have developed essential building blocks and proof-of-concept devices overcoming some of the challenges in Silicon Photonics platform, for example efficient coupling systems from optical fibers to optical waveguides [2], low-loss optical waveguides [3], electro-optic modulators [4,5], all optical devices [6], reconfigurable devices [7,8], and unidirectional devices [9].…”

Picosecond optically reconfigurable filters exploiting full free spectral range tuning of single ring and Vernier effect resonators

“…in sensing [33][34][35][36]. Towards telecommunication applications, the tuning of Vernier resonators working in the first regime of the Vernier effect has been demonstrated based on the thermo-optic effect [36][37][38][39][40] and by carrier injection [41]. As indicated in Fig.…”

Silicon dual-ring modulator driven by differential signal

“…By serially coupling two ring resonators, various functionalities have been demonstrated, including broadband hitless switch [7], reconfigurable switch [8], vernier resonator [9], and so on. In [10], Li proposes a modulator based on this structure.…”

“…2(b) as discrete points. To balance the opposite biases on the two rings and align their resonance wavelengths at state "0," a voltage of 1.73 V is applied on the heater of the top ring [8]. The resulting current through the heater is 3.9 mA, which corresponds to a heater power of 6.75 mW.…”