Analysis of Coupled Resonator Optical Waveguide (CROW) Systems using Hardware-Based Simulation Platforms

In this paper, we present a hardware-based finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) solver that was used to simulate coupled resonator optical waveguide (CROW) structures for an optical delay application. The first simulation, a two-ring structure, was performed and compared against previously published results, to validate the hardware platform. Then, a twenty-ring structure, too large to be practically simulated using standard software tools, was simulated in the hardware platform. The paper shows how hardware-based electromagnetic simulation platforms can be used to accurately analyze problems that could not practically be simulated in a standard software environment and demonstrates how this tool was used to uncover previously unknown scalability relationships in CROW structures