Silicon-Photonic Integrated Filters: Analysis and Fabrication

From the dawn of optical communication, it was designed and intended to carry vast amounts of data. In recent years, such systems are being required over ranges that continuously grow shorter: within racks, servers, boards and even intra-chip. Silicon photonics is the research of electro-optic devices that are integrated in the silicon material platform, with potential for lower cost, smaller footprint, improved performance, reduced energy consumption, and compatibility with electronic integrated circuits. Silicon photonics is widely regarded as key enabler for the future progress of not only communication, but computer processing as well.
One category of components that are broadly used in optical communications systems are spectral filters. They are used primarily in wavelength-division multiplexing and de-multiplexing of channels. The seminar will address the proposition, analysis and design of a new class of channel de-multiplexing filters, based on cascaded stages of Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZIs) with nested ring resonators, in a tree topology. Simulations show that the proposed configuration can provide broad, uniform pass-bands with sharp spectral transitions. Preliminary fabrication attempts will be described as well.
* Research carried out towards the M.Sc. Degree in Electrical Engineering, with the advising of Prof. Avi Zadok, Bar-Ilan University