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32 × 32 silicon electro-optic switch with built-in monitors and balanced-status units
Lei Qiao1,1, Weijie Tang1,1, Tao Chu1,2,1
1State Key Laboratory on Integrated Optoelectronics, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100083, China.
Scientific Reports
|February 10, 2017
Summary
Researchers developed a novel method for fabricating large-scale silicon electro-optical switches using power monitors and optical phase bias. This advancement enables the creation of the largest Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI)-based silicon electro-optical switch to date.
Area of Science:
- Photonics and Optical Engineering
- Semiconductor Device Fabrication
- Integrated Optics
Background:
- Large-scale silicon electro-optical switches are crucial for advanced optical interconnections.
- Fabrication non-uniformities and operational imbalances pose significant challenges in constructing these devices.
- Existing methods struggle to achieve high-density integration and reliable performance.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a scalable fabrication method for large-scale silicon electro-optical switches.
- To address non-uniformity issues arising from fabrication errors.
- To enhance the operational stability and performance of Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI)-based switch units.
Main Methods:
- Implemented a power monitor system to detect and optimize operating points for all switch units, mitigating fabrication-induced non-uniformities.
- Introduced an optical phase bias in one phase-shifter arm of MZI switch units to balance push-pull operations.
- Utilized 180-nm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) process technology for fabrication.
Main Results:
- Successfully fabricated a 32x32 MZI-based silicon electro-optical switch, the largest reported to date.
- Achieved on-chip insertion losses between 12.9-16.5 dB and crosstalk from -17.9 to -24.8 dB ('Cross' status).
- Observed insertion losses of 14.4-18.5 dB and crosstalk of -15.1 to -19.0 dB ('Bar' status), with power consumption of 247.4-542.3 mW.
Conclusions:
- The developed methods effectively enable the fabrication of large-scale silicon electro-optical switches.
- The 32x32 switch demonstrates the feasibility of high-density integration with manageable performance metrics.
- This work paves the way for advanced optical interconnection networks.
