Abstract

We report our recent progress on the implementation of reconfigurable optical true time delay lines and Mach-Zehnder interferometer (GMZI) based optical switches on the silicon-on-insulator platform. The delay line consists of 7 stages of silicon waveguide pairs connected by 2×2 Mach-Zehnder interferometer switches. Variable optical attenuators are embed to suppress the inter-symbol crosstalk caused by the finite extinction ratio of switches. The device can provide a maximum of 1.27 ns delay with a 10 ps resolution over a wide wavelength range. The 4×4 non-blocking switch is based on a Benes architecture with MZIs as the switch elements. Phase errors in MZI arms are compensated by using silicon resistive heaters, with total TO power consumption of 33.7 mW. The switching operation is enabled by p-i-n diodes, with an average switching power of 14.3 mW. The measured transmission spectra show that the device is broadband with 5.8–7.7 dB average on-chip insertion loss for all 24 switching states at 1550 nm. The worst crosstalk of the switch at 1550 nm wavelength is −12 dB.

© 2015 Optical Society of America