Patent ID: 10141710

Abstract:
An optical source includes semiconductor optical amplifiers, with a semiconductor other than silicon, which provide an optical gain medium. Moreover, a photonic chip in the optical source, which is optically coupled to the semiconductor optical amplifiers, includes ring resonators that selectively pass corresponding optical signals having carrier wavelengths provided by the semiconductor optical amplifiers, where a given ring resonator and a reflector on one of the semiconductor optical amplifier defines an optical cavity, and the ring resonators have different radii with associated resonance wavelengths corresponding to the carrier wavelengths. Furthermore, the photonic chip includes a shared ring resonator, optically coupled to the ring resonators, that selectively filters the optical signals, where the shared ring resonator has a different radius than the radii of the ring resonators with an associated resonance wavelength, and a free-spectral range of the shared ring resonator defines a spacing between the carrier wavelengths in the optical signal.