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Design and analysis of silicon ring

resonator for bio-sensing application

Shwetha M., Navya Krishna Reddy, Prasant Kumar

Pattnaik, Narayan K.

Shwetha M., Navya Krishna Reddy, Prasant Kumar Pattnaik, Narayan K.,
"Design and analysis of silicon ring resonator for bio-sensing application,"
Proc. SPIE 10690, Optical Design and Engineering VII, 106902R (5 June
2018); doi: 10.1117/12.2313477

Event: SPIE Optical Systems Design, 2018, Frankfurt, Germany

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 Design and analysis of silicon ring resonator for bio-sensing
application
a
Shwetha M*a, Navya Krishna Reddy a, Prasant Kumar Pattnaik b, Narayan K * .
a b
Department of ECE, Sai Vidya Institute of Technology, Bengaluru (India) 560 064; Department
of EEE, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad (India).

ABSTRACT

In this work, a ring resonator is designed with two rings for the sensing application. The waveguide is designed with
400nm wide and 180nm high. Both the rings are designed with 3.1µm radius each. The straight waveguide couples with
the ring at 1550nm wavelength. The mode profiles and the spectrum of resonances are observed at mid- infrared
wavelength, 1550nm. The measurements of the mode profile, refractive index and spectral properties of the design
facilitate to monitor and modify the optical properties of the ring resonator structure. The phase shift in the resonance is
observed, which can be implemented in the design of the sensor based ring resonator. In sensing applications the small
size of ring resonator plays an important role, the interaction length of ring resonator with few tens of centimeters or
even longer gives better sensing performance. Ring resonator offers enhanced light intensity near its surface with the
enhancement being proportional to the Q-factor, which is due to the circulating nature of the resonant light. The coupling
between the straight waveguide and the ring at 1550nm wavelength and is simulated using Lumerical FDTD. In optical
sensors, a thin layer is attached to one of the ring surface, to observe the phase shift in the resonance. Since the refractive
index of the thin layer on top of the ring structure is different from the surrounding medium which is typically water
based, a change of index happens at the surface of the sensor which is measured for detecting the presence of additional
layer in the cover medium. Hence the ring resonator structure can be implemented for bio-sensing application.
Keywords: Ring resonator, Quality factor, bio-sensing, Lumerical FDTD.

1. INTRODUCTION
Ring resonator devices have been demonstrated an impressive application in the field of optical sensing. It has a high
limit of detection because of the long interaction length resulting from resonances in the ring loop. Due to the huge
potentiality of these devices in the field of sensing applications, it is possible to integrate microfluidic functions into the
microring and the performance can be improved when the device is designed for a Lab-On-a-Chip application [1].
Micro-ring resonators have a wide range of application ranging from toxin detection, environmental monitoring, and
food safety and in medical field, because of on-chip photonic resonance based sensors. The design of microring at near
infrared wavelength enables the integration of low cost silicon devices for bio-sensing application [2].
In silicon photonics, microring resonator is one of the basic components well studied for sensing application. In a
microring sensor, a liquid is placed on the top of the ring resonator structure, any change in the refractive index of the
liquid cause’s proportional change in the effective path length of the ring cavity. Which results in the shift in the
resonance spectrum, spectrum measurement for sensing is used to calculate the change in the refractive index of the
liquid. Here two micro-rings in series are cascaded, one ring is used as sensor ring and the other is used a reference ring.
Depending on the overlap of individual spectra of sensor and reference rings, the intensities at the output of the system is
measured. This induces the change in output intensity, which is integral of power across the output spectrum. This also
results in providing high sensitivity for the device, which is large change in intensity results from small change in the
sensor spectrum. High sensitivity is obtained by reducing the detection of the refractive index sensor [3].
Sensitive and rapid label-free biological and chemical sensors are needed for a wide variety of applications including
early disease diagnosis and prognosis, the monitoring of food and water quality, as well as the detection of bacteria and
viruses for public health concerns and chemical threat sensing. Whispering gallery mode optical resonator based sensing
is a rapidly developing field due to the high sensitivity and speed of these devices as well as their label-free nature. The
field of biological and chemical sensing using whispering gallery mode (WGM) optical resonators is rapidly expanding
chiefly due to the high sensitivity, quick response time, and label-free nature of these devices. WGM resonators have

Optical Design and Engineering VII, edited by Laurent Mazuray, Rolf Wartmann,
Andrew P. Wood, Proc. of SPIE Vol. 10690, 106902R · © 2018 SPIE
CCC code: 0277-786X/18/$18 · doi: 10.1117/12.2313477

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 10690 106902R-1

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 inherently high sensitivity due to their long photon confinement time and have a fast time response due to their
compactness [4].
The principle of operation relies on the cavity enhancement of light in a microring resonator to detect changes in its local
environment. Light is coupled into the bus waveguide and a small fraction of light evanescently couples to the microring
cavity. Light with a wavelength which fits an integral number of times within the ring circumference builds up due to
constructive interference. In this way, light can circulate around the ring many times resulting in an effective path length
that is orders of magnitude greater than the ring circumference. Due to this cavity enhancement, the ring is very sensitive
to any changes in or around the waveguide since the effect of any perturbation is multiplied by the number of round trips
that light undertakes. Since the evanescent field of the waveguide mode extends into the fluid, any optical absorption
present in the fluid within the evanescent field of the microring will alter the resonance transmission characteristics of
the device [5]. In this paper, we propose and designed a cascaded double micro-ring device for bio-sensing application .

2. THEORY
The basic configuration consists of unidirectional coupling between a ring resonator with radius r and a waveguide. A
single unidirectional mode of resonator is excited and the coupling is lossless and single polarization is considered. The
various kinds of losses occurring along the propagation of light in the ring are incorporated in the attenuation constant;
the interaction can be described by the matrix relation [6].
The configuration of integrated micro-ring resonator shown in figure 1 consists of two bus waveguides and two ring
resonators. There are four ports which are utilized in the simulation design of double micro-ring resonator. The ports are
input, through drop and add port. The source of light with 1550nm wavelength is given to the input port is initially
confined to bus waveguide and then couples to ring waveguide. Light confined in the cavity reflects multiple times
producing guided mode resonance for certain resonant frequencies. For a micro-ring resonator the resonance condition is
given by equation (1),
2rneff  mr (1)

Where r is the radius of the ring, neff is the effective refractive index, λr is the resonance wavelength and m is the cavity
order (m=1, 2, 3…..).

Input Through

Drop Add
Figure 1: Double micro-ring resonator model.

Free spectral range (FSR) is one of the important parameter of ring resonator, which is the distance between the two
resonance peaks. By adjusting the length of the waveguide joining the two ring resonator, it is possible to increase the
overall FSR of the configuration [7]. FSR Δλ, which is the difference between the vacuum wavelengths corresponding to
two resonant conditions given by equation (2),

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 1
2    2
FSR        (2)
L    neff L
Wave number k is related to wavelength λ through k=2π/λ. Using the vacuum number, the effective refractive index n eff
can be introduced easily into the ring coupling relation by equation (3),
2 .neff
  k .neff  (3)

Where β is the propagation constant.
Optical cavities are designed to have a very large quality factor, an important parameters of micro-ring resonator
performance is quality factor Q is defined by equation (4) [8],
r
Q (4)

Where Δλ is the difference between two adjacent resonance wavelengths called as FSR.

3. DEVICE DESIGN AND MODELING

Figure 2 shows the modeling of a double micro-ring resonator using Lumerical FDTD Solutions for the design as in
section 2. The bus waveguide considered in the design is 400nm wide and 180 nm high. The ring waveguide is also
designed with 400nm wide and 180nm high waveguide structure, with the outer ring of radius 3.3µm and inner ring of
radius 2.9µm. In the modeling of double micro-ring resonator various monitors are placed to analyze and observe the
results. It can be observed from the figure, four ports are inserted to monitor the transmission spectrum. The coupling of
light from the bus waveguide into the ring waveguide at the mid infrared region is explained in the section 4.

(a) (b)

Figure 2: (a) XY View of double micro-ring resonator model. (b) Perspective view of double micro-ring resonator model.
The monitor to find the quality factor is placed in various locations; an FDTD region is simulated to observe the coupling
of the light from the bus waveguide to the ring waveguide. The structure of double ring resonator is placed on a SiO2 and
is simulated. It can be performed for Silicon-On-Insulator platform in the future work, as SOI technology is useful in
fabrication and it can be used for many bio-sensing applications. The design of a resonant micro-ring with high Q factors
based on SOI technology is the basic structure for sensing application, by determining the waveguide dimensions that
satisfy single mode condition and its modal behavior, a better structure is designed in this work.

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 4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The double ring resonator is designed for sensing application, a design and modeling of the double ring resonator is
explained in the section 2 and 3. Here the optical properties of the ring resonator is observed and explained with the plots
obtained by the simulation of the design.

(a) (b) (c)

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0.9

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x(microns)
x(microns)

(d) (e)

Figure 3: Coupling of light from bus waveguide to ring waveguide at different wavelengths. (a) at 1.5nm (b) at 1.52381nm (c) at
1.54839nm (d) at 1.57377nm (e) at 1.6nm
In figure 3, the coupling of light from bus waveguide to ring waveguide at five different wavelengths are observed. In
figure 3(a) light enters through the bus waveguide and it has started to couple through the ring waveguide in the
subsequent figures from figure 3(b) to figure 3(e). When the light starts to couple, the interaction length can be
calculated, from which the resonance wavelength can be found. By using the formulas mentioned in the section 2, we
can calculate the FSR and Q factor for the design. By calculating the Q factor, the design can be implemented for many
biosensing applications. Here the Q factor of 3000 is obtained by the simulation of the design at 1550nm wavelength.

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(a) (b)

Figure 4: (a) Transmittance at port 1. (b) Transmittance at port 3.

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 10690 106902R-4

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 In the design, the Q factor of 3000 indicates that the design can be used for bio-sensing application. Better the Q factor,
the system will be more sensitive for any of the sensing application. By adding a thin layer of liquid, the optical
parameters will be modified, and a phase shift will also be observed. It is one of the important parameter in any of the
sensing application. Such that the system can be employed for bio-sensing application.
Figure 4 shows the transmittance plot with respect to the wavelength in the mid-infrared region, in the rage of 1.5nm to
1.6nm wavelength. Figure 4(a) shows the transmittance plot in port1 that is input port, from the figure the FSR can be
calculated, it is 22nm, 26nm and 29nm. Figure 4(b) shows the transmittance plot in port3 that is drop port, here also FSR
will be obtained as 22nm, 26nm and 29nm. The unequal resonance peaks indicates the variation in the intensities of light
passing through the bus waveguide and getting coupled at the ring waveguide. Hence the FSR and Q factor are
calculated from the modeled device.
From the figure 5, the power at the input port that is port1 and at the output port that is through port is observed. The
power is increased from the port1 to port3, which can be employed in the sensitivity analysis of the system by varying of
the wavelength of the design. It can also be employed by varying the refractive index of the bio layer, which is placed on
the double ring resonator model.

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Figure 5: (a) Power at the input port (Port 1). (b) Power at output port (Port 3).
Microring resonators are easily integrated in planar optical circuits through evanescent coupling with a bus waveguide.
With the aim of improving the design robustness and the fabrication tolerance, the directional coupler concept can be
adopted. To obtain the critical coupling condition with this scheme, a finite-length coupling zone should be designed, so
that a resonator shape is transformed from a ring to a so called racetrack, in the racetrack configuration the coupling
occurs between two straight identical waveguides. In future work the fabrication of the design can be implemented and it
can be employed for any bio-sensing application.

5. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a double micro-ring resonator is demonstrated for obtaining the important parameters of resonator structure
like Q factor and FSR. The double ring resonator with a two bus waveguide and two ring waveguide is designed and
simulated. The various coupling of light is observed between the bus waveguide and the ring waveguide at different
wavelengths ranging between 1500nm and 1600nm. A thin layer of liquid can be placed on top of the ring resonator
structure for the bio-sensing application. A phase shift will be observed after placing a layer on top of the structure. This
parameter will be employed in the bio-sensing application. The various monitors are placed to observe the different
mode profiles and other resonance characteristics. In the Lumerical FDTD simulation of the design, we have arrived at a
Q factor of 3000 and FSR of 22nm, 26nm and 29nm. The Q factor plays an important role in the bio-sensing application
of the modeled device. With the increase in Q factor for the small sized ring a better system can be designed and later the
fabrication of the device can also be done. The device has to be modeled for fabrication tolerance.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work is supported by Vision Group of Science and Technology, Department of IT, BT & ST, Government of
Karnataka, India. Grant number: VGST - CISEE GRD – 466.

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