Silicon-based thermo-optic modulator based on micro-ring resonant cavity

Abstract

The invention discloses a silicon-based thermo-optic modulator based on a micro-ring resonant cavity. The silicon-based thermo-optic modulator comprises a silicon substrate and a lower silicon dioxide wrapping layer, wherein the lower silicon dioxide wrapping layer is arranged on the silicon substrate; two straight waveguides and an annular waveguide are arranged on the lower silicon dioxide wrapping layer; the two straight waveguides are respectively used as a main channel waveguide for receiving incident light and a lower channel waveguide for outputting emergent light; the annular waveguide is arranged between the two straight waveguides, and polymers are fed between the annular waveguide and the two straight waveguides; thermal electrodes cover the surfaces of the polymers on two sides. The polymers are fed between the main channel waveguide and the annular waveguide as well as between the annular waveguide and the lower channel waveguide of the micro-ring resonant cavity; furthermore, the heat electrodes respectively cover the polymers; the refraction indexes of the polymer materials are changed by controlling voltage of the two heat electrodes, so that the path of light from the straight waveguides to the annular waveguide is changed; therefore, the resonance wavelength is drifted to modulate a light signal; the silicon-based thermo-optic modulator has the characteristics of simple structure, easiness in manufacturing and high modulation efficiency.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention relates to a silicon-based thermo-optic modulator based on a microring resonant cavity, and belongs to the technical field of modulator preparation. Background technique [0002] As a basic component of VLSI, silicon-based chips have always occupied a dominant position in the development of the modern electronics industry. With the improvement of high-performance computing requirements and the increase of interconnection density in data centers, copper wires, as a traditional interconnection medium, are increasingly showing their limitations in terms of bandwidth, loss, and anti-interference. To break this limit, optical interconnection is considered as a promising solution. Since silicon-based photonic integrated devices can be prepared relatively cheaply using existing standard semiconductor manufacturing processes and are easily integrated with microelectronic chips, they have become the primary candidate for optical interconnection a...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0005] At present, silicon-based microring thermo-optic modulators mainly change the refractive index of the ring waveguide (core layer) through the thermo-optic effect of polymers (see figure 1 ) or changing the upper cladding refractive index (see figure 2 ) to change the resonance wavelength to achieve modulation, but the structure and preparation of these methods are relatively complicated, and the modulation efficiency is not high

Images