Optically tunable full 360° microwave photonic phase shifter using three cascaded silicon-on-insulator microring resonators

A broadband optically tunable microwave phase shifter with a tunable phase shift covering the entire 360° range using three cascaded silicon-on-insulator (SOI) microring resonators (MRRs) that are optically pumped is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The phase tuning is implemented based on the thermal nonlinear effect in the MRRs. By optically pumping the MRRs, the stored light in the MRRs is absorbed due to two photon absorption (TPA) to generate free carriers, which result in free carrier absorption (FCA). The FCA effect would lead to the heating of the MRRs and cause a redshift in the phase response, which is used to implement a microwave phase shifter with a tunable phase shift. The device is designated and fabricated on an SOI platform, which is experimentally evaluated. The experimental results show that by optically pumping the MRRs, a broadband microwave photonic phase shifter with a bandwidth of 7 GHz from 16 to 23 GHz with a tunable phase shift covering the entire 360° phase shift range is achieved.