Hitless Wavelength-Selective Switch Using a Single Microring Resonator Assisted With a Symmetric MZI

Abstract

We demonstrate an optical hitless wavelength-selective switch using a single microring resonator assisted with a symmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI). A part of the ring waveguide and its symmetrical waveguide are designed to be an equally armed MZI as an on-off switch for the resonant state of the microring. The symmetric MZI is insensitive to the spectrum and it avoids free spectral range (FSR) matching or alignment in use. The FSR of the structure is 2.18 nm and the insertion loss (IL) at the drop-port is 1.8 dB. Our experimental results reveal that the fabricated device permits on-chip hitless rerouting of multi-wavelength signals, which means the intermediate wavelength remains unaffected during wavelength switching.