Abstract

The silicon thermo-optic switch (TOS) is one of the most fundamental and crucial blocks in large-scale silicon photonic integrated circuits (PICs). An energy-efficient silicon TOS with ultrahigh extinction ratio can effectively mitigate cross talk and reduce power consumption in optical systems. In this Letter, we demonstrate a silicon TOS based on cascading Mach–Zehnder interferometers (MZIs) with spiral thermo-optic phase shifters. The experimental results show that an ultrahigh extinction ratio of 58.8 dB is obtained, and the switching power consumption is as low as 2.32 mW/π without silicon air trench. The rise time and fall time of the silicon TOS are about 10.8 and 11.2 µs, respectively. Particularly, the figure of merit (FOM) has been improved compared with previously reported silicon TOS. The proposed silicon TOS may find potential applications in optical switch arrays, on-chip optical delay lines, etc.

© 2024 Optica Publishing Group

Low-power and high-speed 2 × 2 thermo-optic MMI-MZI switch with suspended phase arms and heater-on-slab structure

Fei Duan, Kai Chen, Da Chen, and Yonglin Yu
Opt. Lett. 46(2) 234-237 (2021)

Silicon–organic hybrid thermo-optic switch based on a slot waveguide directional coupler

Li-Yuan Chiang, Chun-Ta Wang, Steve Pappert, and Paul K. L. Yu
Opt. Lett. 47(15) 3940-3943 (2022)

Low-loss and power-efficient phase shifter based on an optimized multimode spiral silicon waveguide

Shi Zhao, Jingye Chen, Daoxin Dai, and Yaocheng Shi
Opt. Lett. 48(17) 4653-4656 (2023)

Energy-efficient thermo-optic silicon phase shifter with well-balanced overall performance

Huaqing Qiu, Yong Liu, Chao Luan, Deming Kong, Xiaowei Guan, Yunhong Ding, and Hao Hu
Opt. Lett. 45(17) 4806-4809 (2020)

Low-power-consumption polymer Mach–Zehnder interferometer thermo-optic switch at 532 nm based on a triangular waveguide

Baizhu Lin, Xibin Wang, Jiawen Lv, Yue Cao, Yue Yang, Yongbo Zhang, Ao Zhang, Yunji Yi, Fei Wang, and Daming Zhang
Opt. Lett. 45(16) 4448-4451 (2020)