Demonstration of scalable microring weight bank control for large-scale photonic integrated circuits

Abstract

Microring resonators (MRRs) are reconfigurable optical elements ubiquitous in photonic integrated circuits. Owing to its high sensitivity, MRR control is very challenging, especially in large-scale optical systems. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate continuous, multi-channel control of MRR weight banks using simple calibration procedures. A record-high accuracy and precision are achieved for all the controlled MRRs with negligible inter-channel crosstalk. Our approach allows accurate transmission calibration without the need for direct access to the output of the microring weight bank and without the need to lay out electrical and optical I/Os specific for calibration purpose. These features mean that our MRR control approach can be applied to large-scale photonic integrated circuits while maintaining its accuracy with manageable cost of chip area and I/O complexity.