Research on SOI-based micro-resonator devices

Abstract

ABSTRACT SOI (silicon-on-insulator)-based micro-resonator is the key build ing block of silicon photonics, which is considered as a promising solution to alleviate the bandwidth bottleneck of on-chip interconnects. Silicon- based sub-micron waveguide, microring and microdisk devices are investigated in Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The main progress in recent years is presented in this talk, such as high Q factor single mode microdisk filters, compact third-order microring filters with the through/drop port extinctions to be ~ 30/40 dB, fast microring electro-optical switches with the switch time of 10 Gb it/s high speed microring modulators. Keywords: silicon photonics, silicon-on-insulator, microring and microdisk resonators, cascaded microring, optical filters, modulators and switches 1. INTRODUCTION Silicon, serving as the ideal platform for microelectronics, has recently been extensively employed in integrated photonics benefiting from its low optical loss, high index contrast, and as well as compatibility with silicon microelectronics and fabrication facility. Silicon photonics, which fully compatible with microelectronics, offers the most promising solution for low-cost and high-performance ch ip-scale optical interconnects [1]. Among various silicon-based photonic functional devices based on silicon, SOI (silicon- on-insulator) microresonators are considered as one of the essential building blocks enabling ultra-high bandwidth an d ultra-low consumption interconnects due to their micron-scale footprints and high optical confinements. In recent years, great progress has been made on the microring/microdisk-based optical filters [2, 3], optical modulators/switches [4-7], photodetectors [8], optical buffers [9] and sensors [10, 11]. The attractive performances and diverse functions of the microring and microdisk resonators have been attracting worldwide researches ranging from theoretical investigations to practical applications. Silicon-based waveguide devices, including SOI microresonators, have been studied theoretically and experimentally in our group for many years. Here, we will review our recent progress on the passive and active devices based on SOI microring and microdisk resonators, namely (i) a single mode microdisk resonator with Q factor of ~ 82000, (ii) an asymmetrical coupled add-drop microring with > 40 dB through put extinction, (iii) a cascaded microring filter with high extinctions, and (iv) a 10 Gbit/s microring modulator and a sub-nanosecond microring switch.