Non-blocking four-port optical router based on thermo- optic silicon microrings

By using silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform, 12 channel waveguides, and four parallel-coupling one-microring resonator routing elements, a non-blocking four-port optical router is proposed. Structure design and optimization are performed on the routing elements at 1 550 nm. At drop state with a power consumption of 0 mW, the insertion loss of the drop port is less than 1.12 dB, and the crosstalk between the two output ports is less than ?28 dB; at through state with a power consumption of 22 mW, the insertion loss of the through port is less than 0.45 dB, and the crosstalk between the two output ports is below ?21 dB. Routing topology and function are demonstrated for the four-port optical router. The router can work at nine non-blocking routing states using the thermo-optic (TO) effect of silicon for tuning the resonance of each switching element. Detailed characterizations are presented, including output spectrum, insertion loss, and crosstalk. According to the analysis on all the data links of the router, the insertion loss is within the range of 0.13—3.36 dB, and the crosstalk is less than ?19.46 dB. The router can meet the need of large-scale optical network-on-chip (ONoC).