Abstract

Bandwidth-tunable filters are essential in elastic optical networks for dynamic bandwidth allocation. Existing solutions in silicon photonics face challenges to meet requirements in real-world applications due to design trade-offs and fabrication errors. In this Letter, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a silicon photonic tunable add-drop filter in a single-stage, hyperbolic-tangent-apodized contra-directional coupler with a segmented microheater. It allows to create an arbitrary temperature profile along the device for bandwidth tuning in both through and drop responses. We show that the algorithmic operation of the device can effectively compensate local fabrication nonuniformity and improve the out-of-band suppression ratio by 69%. Applying proper temperature offsets and slopes allows to continuously tune the filter’s center wavelength over 8 nm and its drop-port 3 dB bandwidth between 14.0 and 22.4 nm.

© 2021 Optical Society of America

Bandwidth-tunable, FSR-free, microring-based, SOI filter with integrated contra-directional couplers

Ajay Mistry, Mustafa Hammood, Hossam Shoman, Lukas Chrostowski, and Nicolas A. F. Jaeger
Opt. Lett. 43(24) 6041-6044 (2018)

Broadband, silicon photonic, optical add–drop filters with 3 dB bandwidths up to 11 THz

Mustafa Hammood, Ajay Mistry, Han Yun, Minglei Ma, Stephen Lin, Lukas Chrostowski, and Nicolas A. F. Jaeger
Opt. Lett. 46(11) 2738-2741 (2021)

Widely bandwidth-tunable silicon filter with an unlimited free-spectral range

Jonathan St-Yves, Hadi Bahrami, Philippe Jean, Sophie LaRochelle, and Wei Shi
Opt. Lett. 40(23) 5471-5474 (2015)

High extinction ratio on-chip pump-rejection filter based on cascaded grating-assisted contra-directional couplers in silicon nitride rib waveguides

Xiaomin Nie, Nina Turk, Yang Li, Zuyang Liu, and Roel Baets
Opt. Lett. 44(9) 2310-2313 (2019)

Broadband flat-top SOI add–drop filters using apodized sub-wavelength grating contradirectional couplers

Han Yun, Mustafa Hammood, Stephen Lin, Lukas Chrostowski, and Nicolas A. F. Jaeger
Opt. Lett. 44(20) 4929-4932 (2019)