Transmission-Width-Tunable Silicon-Photonic Microelectromechanical Ring Resonator

A microring resonator with a transmission-width (Q-factor) tuning mechanism is proposed. The proposed resonator is composed of freestanding 320-nm-wide 340-nm-thick silicon waveguides, two waveguide couplers, and a 30- μm-wide 40- μm-long comb-drive actuator. The transmission width of the microring is tunable by varying the coupling rate of the couplers with the actuator. The transmission width was varied from 1.42 to 1.61 nm (Q-factor from 1100 to 970) by changing the actuator voltages from 9 to 11 V.