Compact silicon photonic interleaver based on a self-coupled optical waveguide

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a new scheme to realize an on-chip silicon photonic interleaver by using a self-coupled optical waveguide (SCOW). Benefiting from the high-order filtering property of a multistage SCOW resonator, the device has a smaller footprint and higher extinction ratio compared to conventional ring-assisted Mach-Zehnder interferometer interleavers. Its high fabrication tolerance is also demonstrated in this paper. The operation principle of the proposed interleaver is theoretically analyzed. The designed device is fabricated on a silicon-on-insulator wafer under standard complementary metal oxide semiconductor compatible fabrication processes. Experimental results show that 20 dB extinction ratio and about 8 dB insertion loss can be achieved in the entire C-band without any thermo-optic tuning, verifying the effectiveness of the proposed device as an on-chip interleaver with a compact footprint and high extinction ratio. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America