Heat Control of an Integrated Silica VMUX Using Constant Working Power

An on-chip integrated silica variable multiplexer (VMUX) cannot be practically packaged as the involved variable optical attenuator (VOA) is associated with a large amount of heat change and the involved arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) is sensitive to temperature change. On the basis of our success in substantially reducing VOA's power consumption, we have introduced an idle heater for each VOA channel to balance its attenuation-associated heat change and keep the whole arrayed VOA under constant working power. Consequently, a 40-channel AWG-VOA integrated VMUX can be easily stabilized at an optimum setting temperature by simply dissipating the same amount of heat with a conventional packaging. Simulations have shown that both the involved AWG and the VOA work properly in the VMUX device.