Thermal tuners on a Silicon Nitride platform

Abstract

In this paper, the design trade-offs for the implementation of small footprint thermal tuners on silicon nitride are presented, and explored through measurements and supporting simulations of a photonic chip based on Mach-Zehnder Interferometers. Firstly, the electrical properties of the tuners are assessed, showing a compromise between compactness and deterioration. Secondly, the different variables involved in the thermal efficiency, switching power and heater dimensions, are analysed. Finally, with focus on exploring the limits of this compact tuners with regards to on chip component density, the thermal-cross talk is also investigated. Tuners with footprint of 270x5 μm 2 and switching power of 350 mW are reported, with thermal-cross talk, in terms of induced phase change in adjacent devices of less than one order of magnitude at distances over 20 μm. Paths for the improvement of thermal efficiency, power consumption and resilience of the devices are also outlined