Noncritical waveguide alignment for vertically coupled microring using a mode-expanded bus architecture

Vertically coupled microrings in an all-pass filter configuration are fabricated with a range of waveguide misalignments deliberately introduced into the lithography masks to demonstrate noncritical fabrication requirements. The microrings have a mode-expanded bus design which allows a greatly reduced variation in power coupling coefficient-only 6% for fabrication misalignments as high as 1 µm. This represents a five-fold improvement in fabrication tolerance when compared with conventional designs.