Methods and apparatus for tuning optical microring devices

Abstract

An optical system having a plurality of ring resonators that can be tuned by regulating their local temperatures in a manner that enables: initial spectral alignment of the optical resonances with the desired carrier wavelengths; fine-tuning of the ring resonators to spectrally align a selected feature of the optical resonances with the carrier wavelengths; and continuous tuning of the ring resonators to counter any detuning thereof during operation. The initial spectral alignment can be performed using intensity/frequency modulation of different carrier wavelengths with different respective frequencies and detection of said frequencies in the photocurrents generated by the individual ring resonators under reverse-bias conditions. After the initial spectral alignment, the ring resonators can be tuned by dithering the local temperatures and then using frequency decomposition of the feedback signal generated by a single photodiode coupled to the optical bus waveguide downstream from the ring resonators to adjust the heater voltages.