Low-power microelectromechanically tunable silicon photonic ring resonator add-drop filter

We experimentally demonstrate a microelectromechanically (MEMS) tunable photonic ring resonator add-drop filter, fabricated in a simple silicon-on-insulator (SOI) based process. The device uses electrostatic parallel plate actuation to perturb the evanescent field of a silicon waveguide, and achieves a 530 pm resonance wavelength tuning, i.e., more than a fourfold improvement compared to previous MEMS tunable ring resonator add-drop filters. Moreover, our device has a static power consumption below 100 nW, and a tuning rate of -62 pm/V, i.e., the highest reported rate for electrostatic tuning of ring resonator add-drop filters. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America