CN1588143A - Light wave guide micro ring device coupled by bending shape oriented coupler - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses an optical waveguide microring device coupled by a curved directional coupler. At a certain distance from the input/output optical waveguide, adopt the same curved shape as the optical waveguide microring with a closed-loop resonant structure, and set it in parallel with the optical microring to form a curved directional coupler, which is realized by the evanescent field of the optical wave mode in the waveguide For the optical power coupling between the input/output optical waveguide and the optical waveguide microring, a certain parallel distance is determined according to the coupling amount in the application. The present invention adopts the directional coupler of curved shape, can set the coupling between the optical microring and the input/output optical waveguide at quite a long distance, thereby can realize the optical microring input/output power coupling of different sizes easily, further By utilizing the characteristics of the directional coupler and the electro-optic effect, etc., the adjustable control of the power coupling can be easily realized.

Description

Optical waveguide microring device coupled by curved shape directional coupler

technical field

The invention relates to optical components, in particular to an optical waveguide microring device.

Background technique

Optical waveguide microring resonator is an important structural unit of optical waveguide devices, and it has important applications in optical devices such as lasers, optical filters, optical modulators, and optical dispersion compensators. To make full use of the characteristics of the optical waveguide microring resonator, it is the most basic to realize the input and output coupling of optical power in the optical microring. It requires that different power coupling coefficients can be obtained according to different needs. In some tunable optical devices based on optical microrings, this coupling is further utilized, and the functional characteristics can be adjusted by adjusting the amount of power coupling.

At present, the existing coupling methods are all based on the coupling between the input/output straight waveguide and the optical microring. In order to achieve large power coupling and coupling controllability, a section of the optical microring has to be designed as a straight waveguide, which greatly The perimeter of the optical microring is increased, which limits the application of the device. Some people also use complex Mach-Zehnder structure for coupling control, which seriously affects the structure and size of the device. In particular, it is not feasible to realize the tiny microring size.

Contents of the invention

The object of the present invention is to provide an optical waveguide microring device coupled by a curved directional coupler, which can easily realize optical power coupling in various situations as required, and can also be used to realize adjustable coupling.

The technical solution adopted by the present invention to solve the technical problem is: at a certain distance from the input/output optical waveguide, adopt the same curved shape as the optical waveguide microring with closed-loop resonant structure, and set it in parallel with the optical waveguide microring to form a curved The shape of the directional coupler realizes the optical power coupling between the input/output optical waveguide and the optical waveguide microring through the evanescent field of the optical wave mode in the waveguide. A certain distance in parallel is determined according to the coupling amount in the application.

The input/output optical waveguide and the optical waveguide microring are arranged in the same optical waveguide plane at a parallel distance to each other.

The input/output optical waveguide and the optical waveguide microring are arranged in different optical waveguide planes at a parallel distance to each other; the layer where the optical waveguide microring is located is above or below the layer of the input/output optical waveguide.

The said optical waveguide microring is a ring shaped optical microring or an arbitrary closed ring shaped optical microring.

The beneficial effects that the present invention has are:

1) The present invention adopts a curved directional coupler, which can set the coupling between the optical microring and the input/output optical waveguide at a fairly long distance, so that the input/output power coupling of optical microrings of different sizes can be easily realized; In particular, for the ring-shaped optical microring, there is no need to set up a special structure because of the need for coupling, and there is no need to increase the circumference of the microring;

2) Using the characteristics of the directional coupler and the electro-optical effect, etc., the adjustable control of the power coupling can be easily realized on the curved directional coupler adopted in the present invention.

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 is the optical waveguide microring device with any closed-loop shape that adopts the curved shape directional coupler to couple in the same plane;

Fig. 2 is an optical waveguide microring device with any closed-loop shape coupled by a curved directional coupler when the upper and lower layers are used;

Fig. 3 is an optical waveguide microring device with a circular shape that adopts a curved shape directional coupler to couple on the same plane;

Fig. 4 is an optical waveguide microring device with a circular shape coupled by a curved directional coupler when the upper and lower layers are used.

Detailed ways

As shown in Figure 1, it is an optical waveguide microring device with any closed-loop shape coupled by a curved directional coupler in the same plane; in Figure 1 (a) and (b), 1 is the input/output waveguide, and 2 is Arbitrary closed-loop shape optical microring, directional coupler with 3 curved shapes.

As shown in Figure 2, it is an optical waveguide microring device with any closed-loop shape coupled by a curved directional coupler when the upper and lower layers are used; in Figure 2 (a), (b), and (c), 11 is input/output The waveguide, 12 is an optical microring with any closed-loop shape, and 13 is a directional coupler with a curved shape. In FIG. 2( b ), the input/output waveguide 11 is on the upper layer 15 , and the optical microring 12 with any closed-loop shape is located on the lower layer 14 of the input/output waveguide 11 . In FIG. 2( c ), the input/output waveguide 11 is on the lower layer 14 , and the optical microring 12 with any closed-loop shape is located on the upper layer 15 of the input/output waveguide 12 .

As shown in Figure 3, it is an optical waveguide microring device with a circular shape that adopts a curved shape directional coupler to couple on the same plane; in Figure 3 (a), (b), 21 is an input/output waveguide, and 22 is Circular shape optical microring, 23 curved shape directional couplers.

As shown in Figure 4, it is an optical waveguide microring device with a circular shape that is coupled with a curved shape directional coupler when the upper and lower layers are used; in Figure 4 (a), (b), and (c), 31 is input/output The waveguide, 32 is a circular optical microring, and 33 is a curved directional coupler. In FIG. 4( b ), the input/output waveguide 31 is on the upper layer 35 , and the circular optical microring 32 is located on the lower layer 34 of the input/output waveguide 31 . In FIG. 4( c ), the input/output waveguide 31 is on the lower layer 34 , and the circular optical microring 32 is on the upper layer 35 of the input/output waveguide 32 .

There are many implementations of the present invention, and the organic polymer multilayer planar optical waveguide technology is used as an example here, but it is by no means limited to this example.

Using silicon wafer or glass as the substrate material, the lower confinement layer is fabricated by spin coating film formation method, and then the core layer is fabricated, and the waveguide with input/output optical waveguide and optical waveguide microring is produced by photolithography and dry etching graphics. After the core layer is completed, the upper restraint layer is applied. Thus, the curved shape directional coupler input/output coupling structure between the input/output optical waveguide and the optical microring can be obtained when they are coplanar. The electro-optic effect or other effects are used to realize the electrode in the directional coupler, that is, the power coupling between the optical microring and the input/output waveguide can be controlled.

For the upper and lower planar structures, the silicon wafer or glass can also be used as the substrate material, and the lower limiting layer of the first layer can be made by the spin-coating method, and then the core layer of the first layer can be made, and then etched by photolithography and dry etching. , to produce waveguide patterns with input/output optical waveguides (or optical waveguide microrings). After the core layer is completed, the upper restraint layer is applied. This upper confinement layer will also serve as the lower confinement layer for the second layer. Subsequently, the core layer of the second layer is fabricated, the waveguide etching of the optical waveguide microring (or the input/output optical waveguide) and the coating of the upper confinement layer are performed. In this way, an optical waveguide microring device coupled with a curved directional coupler between the input/output optical waveguide and the optical microring at the upper and lower layers can be completed.

Claims (4)

1. optical waveguide micro ring device that adopts curved shape directional coupler coupling, it is characterized in that: on I/O optical waveguide certain distance, adopt and the identical curved shape of the little ring of the optical waveguide with close loop resonance structure, and be provided with the little ring of optical waveguide is parallel, constitute the directional coupler of curved shape, the luminous power that realizes I/O optical waveguide and the little interannular of optical waveguide by light wave pattern evanescent field in the waveguide is coupled, and parallel certain distance is measured big or small needs according to coupling in using and determined.

2. a kind of optical waveguide micro ring device that adopts curved shape directional coupler coupling according to claim 1 is characterized in that: the little ring of I/O optical waveguide and optical waveguide is provided with in same optical waveguide plane, on the parallel distance.

3. a kind of optical waveguide micro ring device that adopts curved shape directional coupler coupling according to claim 1 is characterized in that: I/O optical waveguide and the little ring of optical waveguide are provided with in different optical waveguide planes, on the parallel distance; The aspect at the little ring of optical waveguide place is above or below the aspect of I/O optical waveguide.

4. according to claim 1,2 or 3 described a kind of optical waveguide micro ring devices that adopt the coupling of curved shape directional coupler, it is characterized in that: the little ring of said optical waveguide is the little ring of toroidal light or any little ring of closed loop shape light.

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