Silicon photonic device with backup light paths
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsWeiwei Song, Stefan Rusu, Chan-Hong Chern, Chih-Chang Lin
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A semiconductor device include: a first bus waveguide; a first silicon ring optically coupled to the first bus waveguide; a backup silicon ring optically coupled to the first bus waveguide; a first heater and a second heater configured to heat the first silicon ring and the backup silicon ring, respectively; and a first switch, where the first switch is configured to electrically couple the first silicon ring to a first radio frequency (RF) circuit when the first switch is at a first switching position, and is configured to electrically couple the backup silicon ring to the first RF circuit when the first switch is at a second switching position.
Claims20
A semiconductor device comprising:
- a first silicon ring modulator, wherein the first silicon ring modulator comprises:
- a first bus waveguide;
- a first silicon ring optically coupled to the first bus waveguide;
- a second silicon ring optically coupled to the first bus waveguide, wherein the first silicon ring and the second silicon ring have a same resonant wavelength at a same temperature;
- a first heater configured to heat the first silicon ring;
- a second heater configured to heat the second silicon ring;
- a first switch having a first switching position and a second switching position, wherein the first switch is configured to:
- at the first switching position, electrically couple the first silicon ring to a first radio frequency (RF) circuit;
- and
- at the second switching position, electrically couple the second silicon ring to the first RF circuit;
- and
- a first heater control circuit configured to control the first heater and the second heater such that during operation of the first silicon ring modulator, the first silicon ring and the second silicon ring are heated to different temperatures, wherein the first heater control circuit is configured to:
- heat the first silicon ring and the second silicon ring to a first temperature and a second temperature, respectively, when the first switch is at the first switching position;
- and
- heat the first silicon ring and the second silicon ring to the second temperature and the first temperature, respectively, when the first switch is at the second switching position.
A semiconductor device comprising:
- a first bus waveguide;
- a first silicon ring optically coupled to the first bus waveguide;
- a backup silicon ring optically coupled to the first bus waveguide, wherein the first silicon ring and the backup silicon ring have a same structure, and have a same resonant wavelength at a same temperature;
- a first heater and a second heater configured to heat the first silicon ring and the backup silicon ring, respectively;
- a first switch, wherein the first switch is configured to electrically couple the first silicon ring to a radio frequency (RF) circuit when the first switch is at a first switching position, and is configured to electrically couple the backup silicon ring to the RF circuit when the first switch is at a second switching position;
- and
- a heater control circuit configured to:
- heat the first silicon ring to a first temperature using the first heater and heat the backup silicon ring to a second temperature different from the first temperature using the second heater, when the first silicon ring is functioning properly;
- and
- in response to detecting that the first silicon ring has failed, heat the first silicon ring to the second temperature using the first heater and heat the backup silicon ring to the first temperature using the second heater.
A method of operating a silicon ring modulator having a first ring, a second ring, and a bus waveguide optically coupled to the first ring and the second ring, the method comprising:
- injecting a light signal having a first wavelength into the bus waveguide;
- heating the first ring and the second ring to a first temperature and a second temperature different from the first temperature, respectively, wherein the first ring and the second ring have a same resonant wavelength at a same temperature, wherein a first resonant wavelength of the first ring at the first temperature matches the first wavelength of the light signal;
- modulating the light signal coupled into the first ring by applying a radio frequency (RF) signal to the first ring;
- transmitting the modulated light signal to a receiver;
- monitoring a received signal quality indicator provided by the receiver;
- and
- in response to detecting that the received signal quality indicator drops below a pre-determined threshold:
- heating the first ring and the second ring to the second temperature and the first temperature, respectively;
- and
- modulating the light signal coupled into the second ring by applying the RF signal to the second ring.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.