Variable optical attenuator using a multi-path interferometer embedded in an optical cavity

Abstract

Variable optical attenuators (VOAs) used in photonic integrated circuits suffer from trade-off between dynamic range of attenuation and large footprint and introduce inadvertent changes in optical phase while attenuating the input signal. In this work, we propose a VOA architecture using micro-ring resonators which provides ≥60dB optical attenuation of selected wavelengths, while preserving the input optical phase, in a compact footprint. It enables tailoring of the dynamic range and insertion loss for different circuit applications in photonic signal processing, programmable photonics, high performance computing, and datacenter communication.