We propose a ${2} \times {2}$ thermo-optic switch with high switching performance. The switch is based on multimode interferometer (MMI) couplers and a Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) structure, where the phase arms are designed as laterally supported suspended ridge waveguides (LSSRWs) with a metallic heater placed on the slab. It is experimentally demonstrated that this switch has a power consumption of 1.07 mW, a thermal time constant ${\sim}{4.7}\;\unicode{x00B5} {\rm s}$, an extinction ratio ${\sim}{30}\;{\rm dB}$, and an insertion loss ${\sim}{0.5}\;{\rm dB}$. Particularly, the corresponding figure of merit (FOM) has been improved by 1 order magnitude compared with general thermo-optic switches. This ${2} \times {2}$ thermo-optic MMI-MZI switch may find potential application for network reconfiguration and on-chip optical information processing.

中文翻译：

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低功率，高速2×2热光MMI-MZI开关，具有悬挂式相臂和平板加热器

我们提出了一种具有高开关性能的$ {2} \ times {2} $热光开关。该开关基于多模干涉仪（MMI）耦合器和Mach-Zehnder干涉仪（MZI）结构，其中相臂设计为横向支撑的悬浮脊形波导（LSSRW），并在平板上放置金属加热器。实验证明该开关的功耗为1.07 mW，热时间常数为$ {\ sim} {4.7} \; \ unicode {x00B5} {\ rm s} $，消光比为$ {\ sim} { 30} \; {\ rm dB} $和插入损耗$ {\ sim} {0.5} \; {\ rm dB} $。特别是，与普通的热光开关相比，相应的品质因数（FOM）已提高了1个数量级。这个$ {2} \ times {2} $热光MMI-MZI交换机可能会发现潜在的应用，可用于网络重新配置和片上光学信息处理。