Abstract
Dense wavelength division multiplexers are key components of data communication networks. This paper presents a silicon-photonic eight-channel multiplexer device with a channel spacing of only 0.133 nm (17 GHz). Devices were fabricated in a commercial silicon foundry, in 8» silicon-on-insulator wafers. The device layout consists of seven unbalanced Mach-Zehnder interferometers in a cascaded tree topology, and each interferometer unit also includes a nested ring resonator element. The transfer function of each unit is that of a maximally flat, auto-regressive, moving-average filter. The devices are characterized by uniform passbands, sharp spectral transitions between pass and stop bands, and strong out-of-band rejection. The worst-case optical power crosstalk is -22 dB. The proper function of the device requires careful control of optical phase delays over 14 distinct optical paths. Post-fabrication trimming of phase delays was performed through local illumination of a photo-sensitive upper cladding layer of chalcogenide glass. The de-multiplexing of three adjacent QAM-16, 40 Gbit/s wavelength-division channels was successfully demonstrated. The devices are applicable in data communication and in integrated-photonic processing of radio-over-fiber waveforms.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 8664601 |
Journal | IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics |
Volume | 25 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1 Sep 2019 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 1995-2012 IEEE.
Funding
Dr. Hen was the recipient of the Academia-Industry Fellowship for the Promotion of Women in Science from the Israeli Ministry of Science, Technology, and Space in 2017. Manuscript received November 5, 2018; revised January 5, 2019; accepted March 5, 2019. Date of publication March 11, 2019; date of current version April 18, 2019. This work was supported in part by the Israel Science Foundation under Grant 1665/14, in part by the Israel Innovation Authority through PETA CLOUD Consortium, MAGNET Program, and in part by Ministry of Science and Culture (MWK) of Lower Saxony, Germany (GZ 21.1-76251-87150700). (Corresponding author: Avi Zadok).
Funders | Funder number |
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Israel Innovation Authority | |
Israeli Ministry of Science, Technology, and Space | |
Ministry of Science and Culture | |
Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst Baden-Württemberg | GZ 21.1-76251-87150700 |
Israel Science Foundation | 1665/14 |
Keywords
- Silicon photonics
- chalcogenide glasses
- data communication
- optical communication
- optical filters
- photonic integrated circuits
- wavelength division multiplexing