J.-F Song, A. E. -J. Lim, X. -S. Luo, Q. Fang, C. Li, L. X. Jia, X. -G Tu, Y. Huang, H. -F. Zhou, T. -Y. Liow, and G. -Q. Lo, "Silicon photonic integrated circuits with electrically programmable non-volatile memory functions," Opt. Express 24, 21744-21751 (2016)
Abstract:
Conventional silicon photonic integrated circuits do not normally possess memory functions, which require on-chip power in order to maintain circuit states in tuned or field configured switching routes. In this context, we present an electrically programmable add/drop microring resonator with a wavelength shift of 426 pm between the ON/OFF states. Electrical pulses are used to control the choice of the state. Our experimental results show a wavelength shift of 2.8 pm/ms and a light intensity variation of ~0.12 dB/ms for a fixed wavelength in the OFF state. Theoretically, our device can accommodate up to 65 states of multi-level memory functions. Such memory functions can be integrated into wavelength division mutiplexing (WDM) filters and applied to optical routers and computing architectures fulfilling large data downloading demands.