Reconfigurable multi-channel second-order silicon microring-resonator filterbanks for on-chip WDM systems.
We report the fabrication of a reconfigurable wide-band twenty-channel second-order dual filterbank, defined on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform, with tunable channel spacing and 20 GHz single-channel bandwidth. We demonstrate the precise tuning of eleven (out of the twenty) channels, with a channel spacing of 124 GHz (~1 nm) and crosstalk between channels of about -45 dB. The effective thermo-optic tuning efficiency is about 27 μW/GHz/ring. A single channel of a twenty-channel counter-propagating filterbank is also demonstrated, showing that both propagating modes exhibit identical filter responses. Considerations about thermal crosstalk are also presented. These filterbanks are suitable for on-chip wavelength-division-multiplexing applications, and have the largest-to-date reported number of channels built on an SOI platform.
Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA. mdahlem@alum.mit.edu
Marcus S
MS
Dahlem
Charles W
CW
Holzwarth
Anatol
A
Khilo
Franz X
FX
Kärtner
Henry I
HI
Smith
Erich P
EP
Ippen