InP tunable ring resonator filters

Optical channelizing filters with narrow linewidth are of interest for optical processing of microwave signals. Fabrication tolerances make it difficult to place exactly the optical resonance frequency within the microwave spectrum as is required for many applications. Therefore, efficient tuning of the filter resonance is essential. In this paper we present a tunable ring resonator filter with an integrated semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) fabricated on an InP based photonic integrated circuit (PIC) platform. The ring resonance is tuned over 37 GHz with just 0.2 mA of current injection into a passive phase section. The use of current injection is often more efficient than thermal tuning using heaters making them useful for low-power applications. The single active ring resonator has an electrical FWHM of 1.5 GHz and shows greater than 16 dB of extinction between on and off resonance. The effects of SOA internal ring gain and induced passive loss on extinction and linewidth will be shown. Agreement between experimentally demonstrated devices and simulations are shown. The integration of the active and passive regions is done using quantum well intermixing and the resonators utilize buried heterostructure waveguides. The fabrication process of these filters is compatible with the monolithic integration of DBR lasers and high speed modulators enabling single chip highly functional PICs for the channelizing of RF signals.