Van Campenhout Joris, Green William M J, Vlasov Yurii A
IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY 10598, USA.
Opt Express. 2009 Dec 21;17(26):23793-808. doi: 10.1364/OE.17.023793.
We present a novel design for a noise-tolerant, ultra-broadband electro-optic switch, based on a Mach-Zehnder lattice (MZL) interferometer. We analyze the switch performance through rigorous optical simulations, for devices implemented in silicon-on-insulator with carrier-injection-based phase shifters. We show that such a MZL switch can be designed to have a step-like switching response, resulting in improved tolerance to drive-voltage noise and temperature variations as compared to a single-stage Mach-Zehnder switch. Furthermore, we show that degradation in switching crosstalk and insertion loss due to free-carrier absorption can be largely overcome by a MZL switch design. Finally, MZL switches can be designed for having an ultra-wide, temperature-insensitive optical bandwidth of more than 250 nm. The proposed device shows good potential as a broadband optical switch in reconfigurable optical networks-on-chip.
我们提出了一种基于马赫-曾德尔晶格（MZL）干涉仪的新型抗噪声超宽带电光开关设计。对于采用基于载流子注入的移相器的绝缘体上硅器件，我们通过严格的光学模拟分析了开关性能。我们表明，这种MZL开关可以设计成具有阶梯状的开关响应，与单级马赫-曾德尔开关相比，对驱动电压噪声和温度变化的耐受性有所提高。此外，我们表明，MZL开关设计可以在很大程度上克服由于自由载流子吸收导致的开关串扰和插入损耗的退化。最后，MZL开关可以设计成具有超过250 nm的超宽、温度不敏感的光学带宽。所提出的器件作为可重构片上光网络中的宽带光开关具有良好的潜力。
