Beating the Heat: Controlling Thermal Effects in Plasma Dispersion Tuned SOI Waveguide Devices

Numerical solution of the semiconductor and heat flow equations is used to show that fast plasma dispersion tuning of bipolar SOI waveguide devices can be made to dominate over slower thermooptic tuning by using shallow, polysilicon-contacted n+ and p+ regions of minimum area, and placing these regions away from the waveguide rib. Experimental results for a plasma dispersion tuned Mach Zehnder interferometer switch are used to illustrate this design approach