De-Lu Li

DESIGN AND OPTIMIZATION OF AN ATHERMAL ASYMMETRIC ALL-POLYMER ARRAYED WAVEGUIDE GRATING

This study demonstrates a novel athermal asymmetric arrayed waveguide grating (AWG), which is composed of polymer waveguides on a polymer substrate. The temperature-dependent wavelength shift of the AWG depends on the refractive indices of the polymer materials and the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of the polymer substrate. The athermalization of the AWG can be realized by the selection of the polymer materials and the structural parameters of the waveguide and the substrate.

Transmission characteristics of microring resonator arrays

In terms of the coupled mode theory, novel formulas of the transfer functions are presented for a microring resonator array, which consists of multiple series-cascaded filter elements, and each of them contains double parallel-cascaded identical microrings. By using these formulas, we can analyze transmission characteristics for such a polymer device. Simulated results show that when some parameters are selected properly, the box-like spectral response can be formed, which is flat and steep, and the sidelobes and the cross talk can be dropped efficiently. The effects of manufacturing tolerances on the transmittance are discussed, which result in the shift of the transmission spectrum of the device.