Heat Control of an Integrated Silica VMUX Using Constant Working Power

An on-chip integrated silica variable multiplexer (VMUX) cannot be practically packaged as the involved variable optical attenuator (VOA) is associated with a large amount of heat change and the involved arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) is sensitive to temperature change. On the basis of our success in substantially reducing VOA´s power consumption, we have introduced an idle heater for each VOA channel to balance its attenuation-associated heat change and keep the whole arrayed VOA under constant working power. Consequently, a 40-channel AWG-VOA integrated VMUX can be easily stabilized at an optimum setting temperature by simply dissipating the same amount of heat with a conventional packaging. Simulations have shown that both the involved AWG and the VOA work properly in the VMUX device