Design and Characterization of Q-enhanced Silicon Nitride Racetrack Micro-Resonators

Abstract: Q-enhanced racetrack micro-resonators for the silicon nitride photonics integration platform have been designed, fabricated and characterized. The proposed geometries permit to mitigate the impact of radiation loss at curved waveguides, one of the major limitations of silicon nitride circuits, therefore providing an increase of the intrinsic Q factor of micro-resonators when compared with the conventional structures with the same bent radii. The schemes put forward in this work permit a reduction of the size of the devices that has a direct impact on the integration scale in this platform. When used in the curved sections of waveguides routing optical signals within an integrated photonic circuit, these geometries provide a reduction of the radiation loss and permit the use of smaller bent radii and to increase the circuit integration density.