High accurate self-calibration of photonic integrated circuit using lossless thermo-optic phase shifters.

The accurate calibration of large-scale switch networks is critical for integrated photonics, in which the integrated optical true time delay chip is typical. In this work, a novel self-calibration method without extra testing ports is proposed by introducing lossless thermo-optic phase shifters instead to calibrate the network. As a demonstration, a 5-bit delay line based on silicon nitride is fabricated and calibrated. The extinction ratio of all the switches is greater than 30.9 dB at the cross and bar states. Using this method, the 5-bit optical delay line which can be tuned in a range of 118.53 ps and reach a low delay time deviation less than ±0.4 ps.