Dual-physical Mechanism Tuned Ultra-Wide Range Amplitude Equalizer Based on Cascaded Microrings

Silicon photonics technology is developing rapidly as an integrated platform for large-scale photonic integrated circuit. In this paper, we propose an ultra-wide range low energy amplitude equalizer driven by two physical mechanisms. The research is mainly based on silicon photonics technology, finite element analysis and finite difference time domain method. The two tuning methods are nano-opto-electro-mechanical (NOEM) system and micro-heater. Its average excess loss is estimated to be smaller than 0.4 dB, and its attenuation dynamic range can exceed 26 dB. When several wavelengths overlap, the attenuation amplitude can be multiplied. The results show that the resonant wavelength of the microring varies by about 33 nm and can be increased to about 60nm under the two tuning methods. The large wavelength modulation capability indicates that the device has a high energy efficiency, and can greatly expand the wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) scenario. In order to achieve high energy efficiency thermal tuning, we innovatively propose a suspended segmented on-ring heater. It is found that the energy efficiency of the heater is about three times higher than that of the existing solutions. The proposed architecture can facilitate the development of long-haul optical transport networks and ultra-high-capacity optical computing system.