FSR-free silicon-on-insulator microring resonator based filter with bent contra-directional couplers

High-speed optical interconnects drive the need for compact microring resonators (MRRs) with wide free spectral ranges (FSRs). A silicon-on-insulator MRR based filter with bent contra-directional couplers that exhibits an FSR-free response, at both the drop and through ports, while achieving a compact footprint is both theoretically and experimentally demonstrated. Also, using bent contra-directional couplers in the couping regions of MRRs allowed us to achieve larger side-mode suppressions than MRRs with straight CDCs. The fabricated filter has a minimum suppression ratio of more than 15 dB, a 3dB-bandwidth of ~23 GHz, an extinction ratio of ~18 dB, and a drop-port insertion loss of ~1 dB. High-speed data transmission through our filter is also demonstrated at data rates of 12.5 Gbps, 20 Gbps, and 28 Gbps.