Reconfigurable multi-channel second-order silicon microring-resonator filterbanks for on-chip WDM systems

We report the fabrication of a reconfigurable wide-band twenty-channel second-order dual filterbank, defined on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform, with tunable channel spacing and 20 GHz single-channel bandwidth. We demonstrate the precise tuning of eleven (out of the twenty) channels, with a channel spacing of 124 GHz (similar to 1 nm) and crosstalk between channels of about. 45 dB. The effective thermo-optic tuning efficiency is about 27 mu W/GHz/ring. A single channel of a twenty-channel counter-propagating filterbank is also demonstrated, showing that both propagating modes exhibit identical filter responses. Considerations about thermal crosstalk are also presented. These filterbanks are suitable for on-chip wavelength-division-multiplexing applications, and have the largest-to-date reported number of channels built on an SOI platform. (C) 2010 Optical Society of America