Optik 131 (2017) 1063–1070

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Optik
journal homepage: www.elsevier.de/ijleo

Original research article

Design and analysis of serially coupled double microring

resonator based force sensor for 1 ␮N range measurement
Venkateswara Rao Kolli a,∗ , Tupakula Srinivasulu c , Gopalkrishna Hegde b ,
T Badrinarayana a , Srinivas Talabattula a
a
Electrical Communication Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India
b
Centre for Nano Science and Engineering (CeNSE), Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India
c
Dept. of Electronics & Communication Engineering, Amrita school of engineering, Amrita University, Bangalore, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: We report the design and analysis of a serially coupled double microring resonator based
Received 11 October 2016 force sensor for 1 ␮N range measurement. The change in the applied force can be monitored
Accepted 30 November 2016 by change in the resonant wavelength shift at drop port of the double microring resonator.
The current force sensor can measure the force range of 0–1 ␮N. The estimated resonant
Keywords: wavelength shift is 0.1 nm per 1 ␮N force. This force sensor provides large FSR of 114 nm, low
Microcantilever FWHM of 0.08 nm and high Q-factor 19,000 compared to the force sensor based on single
Microring resonator
microring. This proposed device can be employed for sensing smaller forces in aerospace,
Force sensor
automobile and other harsh environmental applications. This sensor can also be used as
Photo elastic effect
Vernier effect displacement, pressure sensor and accelerometer by appropriate change in the design.
© 2016 Published by Elsevier GmbH.

1. Introduction

The miniaturized opto mechanical devices are suitable for automobile industries, aerospace and biomedical applications
for measuring smaller forces because of their small size and weight [1]. The large refractive index difference between Si
as waveguide core and SiO2 as cladding of silicon on insulator(SOI) structure makes possible for less than a micrometer
core sizes, which is used for single mode propagation at a wavelength of 1.5 ␮m and the strong confinement allows sharp
bends with radii of few micrometers [2]. The micro optical electromechanical system (MOEMS) has advantages over micro
electromechanical system (MEMS) because of high optic sensitivity, simplicity, inexpensive and they can be used in elec-
tromagnetically active environment and ultra-high vacuum systems. There are various displacement detection techniques:
tunneling detection [3], interferometry detection [4], piezoresistive sensors [5], piezoelectric sensors [6], interdigital detec-
tion [7], capacitive sensors [8], using integrated optical detection techniques, a novel displacement sensor for scanning
probe microscopies is described, fabricated using high-index contrast GaAs–Al0.6 Ga0.4 As platform [9,10] and an optical
MEMS pressure sensor based on serially coupled double ring resonator is designed [11].
In this paper, we present the design and analysis of a novel serially coupled double microring resonator (SDMR) based
force sensor using integrated optic detection method on SOI platform. A serially coupled microring resonator has advantages
over single microring resonator (MR). The single conventional MR with smaller radius provides low free spectral range (FSR),
high full width half maximum (FWHM), low quality factor and low sensitivity [12]. For sensing applications, the desirable

∗ Corresponding author at: Electrical Communication Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India.
E-mail address: venkukolli@gmail.com (V.R. Kolli).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijleo.2016.11.212
0030-4026/© 2016 Published by Elsevier GmbH.
1064 V.R. Kolli et al. / Optik 131 (2017) 1063–1070

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of top view of a serially coupled double microring resonator based force sensor for 1 ␮N force measurement.

characteristics are, FSR should be larger than maximum wavelength shift, low FWHM, high quality factor, high finesse and
high sensitivity. These characteristics depends on radius of MR. FSR and FWHM are inversely proportional radius of MR and
the quality factor and sensitivity are directly proportional to radius of MR. By decreasing radius the FSR and FWHM can
be increased, simultaneously it reduces the quality factor and sensitivity of device and leads to the bending losses. These
disadvantages of MR can be overcome by introducing SDMR. The SDMR based force sensor provides high FSR, low FWHM,
high quality factor and high sensitivity when compared to conventional single MR based force sensor.

2. Design of SDMR based force sensor

Fig. 1 shows the schematic diagram of top view of SDMR based force sensor for 1 ␮N force measurement. This device
works on the principle of photo elastic effect and vernier effect. In order to experience maximum stress an optic SDMR with
input and output waveguides are integrated at base of silicon microcantilever beam (MB). When point force is applied at
tip of free end of MB, MR1 and MR2 of SDMR experience maximum stress and due to opto mechanical coupling of MR1
and MR2 with MB, stress induces change of effective refractive index on MR1 and MR2 . This in turn leads to cumulative
resonant wavelength shift in transmission spectrum at drop port of SDMR. The magnitude of applied force is obtained in
terms of wavelength shift. The simulation analysis is carried out in two phases. Finite element method (FEM) simulations are
carried out for stress analysis of MB. 2-D finite difference time domain (FDTD) method simulations are carried out for analyse
the transmission characteristics of SDMR. In order to reduce time complexity, the effective index of waveguide 3.29919 is
computed by using effective index method (EIM) and used in 2-D finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulations instead
of 3-FDTD simulations.

3. Silicon microcantilever beam and opto mechanical coupling

The MB is fixed at x = 0 and right end is left free at x = L and point force is applied at tip of free end of MB as shown in
Fig. 1. By considering MB is in X–Y plane and thickness is in Z direction. We have optimized the maximum stress at base
of silicon MB by taking length 100 ␮m, width 30 ␮m and thickness 220 nm. When point force is applied at free end of MB,
deformation along MB is as shown in Fig. 3. Using appropriate boundary conditions of ı(L) = 0 and ı (L) = 0, deformation at
any point x along MB in z direction is given by [13,14]:

Fx2 (3L − x)
ı(x) = (1)
6EI
and the maximum displacement of MB at free end is given by

FL3
ımax = (2)
3EI
where ı is deformation of MB along transverse axis, F is point force, E is Young’s modulus, for silicon Young’s modulus is
170 GPa [15], I is moment of inertia and I = (wt3 /12), w is width, t is thickness and L is length of MB. The linear variation of
displacement of MB along with length of MB for 1 ␮N point force is shown in Fig. 2. According to Eq. (2) displacement is
proportional to applied force and it is maximum (62.19 1 ␮m) at free end (x = L) of MB.
The stress  distribution at any point x along MB due to applied force is given by

Ftx2 (3L − x)
(x) = (3)
4IL2
The maximum stress at fixed end is given by
FLt
max = (4)
2I
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Fig. 2. Variation of displacement along length of MB.

Fig. 3. Stress distribution along length of MB.

The variation of stress distribution along length of MB for 1 ␮N force is shown in Fig. 3. The nonlinear stress distribution
at base is due to integration of SDMR with MB. According to Eq. (3) stress is inversely proportional to thickness in order of
two. The average stress distribution on MR1 , MR2 is different because of its location at base and diameter. The maximum
stress distribution is 342 MPa and 325 MPa on MR1 , MR2 respectively.
According to Hooke’s law, force that can be applied at tip of MB is given by

Ewt 3
F = ı = ı (5)
4L3
where  is spring constant. The refractive index on each MR depends on the position of MR on the MB, so the average effective
refractive index Navg on MR1 and MR2 can be expressed as fourth rank photo-elastic tensor
 2R1
C
Navg1 = l (x)dx (6)
2R1 0
 (2R2 +10−6 )
Cl
Navg2 = (x)dx (7)
2R2 10−6

where Cl is stress optic coefficient of waveguide. The average refractive index change depends on stress optic coefficient and
average stress distribution on each MR. For silicon, longitudinal and transverse stress optic coefficients are 1.56 × 10−11 Pa−1
and −0.45 × 10−11 Pa−1 respectively. Here transverse stress optic coefficient is small compared to longitudinal stress optic
coefficient, it can be neglected. The phase change of MR1 and MR2 is given as

42
˚1 = Navg1 R1 (8)

42
˚2 = Navg2 R2 (9)

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Fig. 4. Variation of (a) FWHM, (b) FSR, (c) quality factor with radius of a single microring resonator at wavelength of 1.437 ␮m and 1.517 ␮m and (d)
variation of finesse with transmission coefficient.

The total phase shift of the force sensor depends on sum of the phase shift due to MR1 and MR2 . It is given as

˚T = ˚1 + ˚2 (10)

The phase change depends on change in refractive index and circumference of MR. The maximum refractive index change
and larger circumferences produces high phase shift for sensing applications. From Eq. (10) it is clear that compared to phase
shift of single MR, phase shift of SDMR is high.

4. Serially coupled double microring resonator

The SDMR consists of a serially coupled 5 ␮m and 4 ␮m diameter rings and located between input port and output port and
output can be taken at drop port using 3 ␮m radius bend waveguide as shown in Fig. 1. The silicon waveguide is designed with
width and thickness a 500 nm and 220 nm respectively for single mode TE polarization at 1550 nm operating wavelength.
The simulations are carried out using 2D FDTD method for analysis of transmission characteristics and numerical formulas
are used for theoretical analysis.
Fig. 4 shows dependence of FSR, FWHM and quality factor on radius of MR and wavelength and Finesse depends on
transmission coefficient. Here the FSR is the wavelength range between two adjacent resonances or the FSR is frequency
separation between two successive resonances, FWHM is resonance peak width at half maximum power, the quality factor
is ratio of resonance wavelength to FWHM and the Finesse or sharpness gives resolving power of MR and number of round
trips inside microring by the photon.

4.1. Analysis of serially coupled microring resonator

Fig. 5 shows the schematic diagram of SDMR with various coupling coefficients and relations between input and output
fields at three coupling regions. When Gaussian field is applied at input port of SDMR, the portion of field coupled to MR1
and resonant condition takes place, at resonance of MR1 the portion of field coupled to MR2 and resonant condition takes
place, at resonance of MR2 an output can be observed at the drop port. The SDMR resonant condition for each microring
resonator is different because of different radius. The electric field of MR1 due to internal field distributions and input field
can be obtained [16,17] as

Ea = −r1∗ EI + t1∗ 1 ej(1 /2) Eb (11)


j 21
Eb = t2∗ 1 e Ea − r2∗ 2 ej(1 /2) Ed (12)

The electric fields relations of MR2 due to internal field distributions and addport field can be obtained as
2
Ec = r2 1 ej 2 Ea + t2 2 ej(2 /2) Ed (13)

Ed = −r3∗ EA + t3∗ 2 ej(2 /2) Ec (14)

The field intensity at through port and drop port can be obtained as

ET = t1 EI + r1 1 ej(1 /2) Eb (15)

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Fig. 5. The schematic diagram of a SDMR.

Fig. 6. (a) The electric field distribution of MR1 resonant condition and (b) the transfer of field from MR1 to MR2 .

ED = t3 EA + r3 2 ej(2 /2) Ec (16)

where 1 and 2 represent half round trip loss coefficients of MR1 and MR2 respectively. By assuming symmetrical coupling
at input port and output port, i.e., r1 = r3 , setting r =− r* ,t =− t* , and field at add port is zero(EA ), from Eqs. (11)–(16) the
transmitted power intensity at through port is given as

ET 2 −t1 r12 1 ej1 (t3 2 ej2 − t2 )

IT = | | =| |2 (17)
EI 1 − t1 t2 (1 ej1 + 2 ej2 ) − t12 1 2 ej(1 +2 )

In the same way the transmission power at drop port can be obtained as
1 2
ED r12 r2 1 2 ej 2 ej 2
ID = | |2 = | |2 (18)
EI 1 − t1 t2 (1 ej1 + 2 ej2 ) − t12 1 2 ej(1 +2 )

At resonance, phase shift is proportional to propagation constant and circumference of MR1 and MR2 is given by

1 = ˇL1 (19)

2 = ˇL2 (20)

And at resonance, the phase shift accumulated in MR1 and MR2 is given by

1 = M2 (21)

1 = N2 (22)

Fig. 6(a) shows field distribution in the MR1 at condition due to due to evanescent field coupling between input waveguide
and MR1 , similarly Fig. 6(b) shows the field coupling between two MRs due to Vernier effect.
1068 V.R. Kolli et al. / Optik 131 (2017) 1063–1070

Fig. 7. The field transfer between two MRs and (b) the field at resonant condition of MR2 .

Fig. 7(a) shows field transfer between two MRs due to the weakly coupling. Fig. 7(b) show the field distribution on the MR2
at resonant condition, at resonant condition the same field transferred to the drop port (output waveguide) where 1 and 2
are phase accumulated by waves in MR1 and MR2 respectively, M and N are resonant numbers, L1 and L2 are circumference
of MR1 and MR2 respectively and ˇ is the propagation constant. By assuming zero loss (1 = 2 = 1). By substituting (21)) and
(22) into (18) the transmittance power intensity of SDMR at drop port is given by

ED 2 r12 r2
ID = | | =|  |2 (23)
EI 1 − 2 (1 − r1 2 )(1 − r2 2 ) + (1 − r1 2 )

When the SDMR is at the critical coupling condition, |ED /EI |2 = 1. The r2 value is given as

r12
r2 = (24)
2 − r12

The transmission power intensity, resonant wavelength and side modes suppression of drop port and transmission port
depends on the critical coupling coefficient at three coupling regions. At critical coupling condition r2 + t2 =1. Here, |r|2 is the
portion of power coupled between two waveguides and t2 =1 − r2 is the portion of transmitted power that is not coupled to
the MR.
The transmission characteristics at drop port and transmission port for various coupling coefficients and coupling condi-
tions are shown in Fig. 8. The critical coupling condition is obtained by choosing appropriate values of coupling coefficients.
Fig. 8(a) shows the transmission characteristics of SDMR for different r1 values. The three coupling conditions are shown in
Fig. 8(b) at r1 value of 0.2, 0.4 and 0.9. When r1 > 0.4, SDMR is over coupled leads to high side modes and high FWHM, when
r1 < 0.4, SDMR is under coupled, results low field intensity and when r1 = 0.4, SDMR is critically coupled provides low FWHM,

Fig. 8. Transmission characteristics of SDMR (a) at various coupling coefficients (b) at different coupling conditions and (c) around coupling condition
 V.R. Kolli et al. / Optik 131 (2017) 1063–1070 1069

Fig. 9. Comparison of SDMR with single MR for FSR and FWHM.

high suppressed side modes and high intensity, which are the desirable characteristics for sensing applications. Fig. 8(c)
show the resonance characteristics of SDMR around the critical coupling. The resonant wavelength of MR1 and MR2 is given
by

res1 = neff 2R1 /m m = 1, 2, 3, . . . (25)

res2 = neff 2R2 /n, n = 1, 2, 3, . . . (26)

where res is resonant wavelength, neff1 and neff2 are effective indices, R1 and R2 are radius, and m and n are mode number
of MR1 and MR2 respectively. The FWHM of the resonance spectrum is given by

(1 − t1 t2 )2res
FWHM =  (27)
ng Leff t1 t2 

where Leff is the effective length of SDMR. FSR of the single add drop MR is given by

2
FSR = (28)
ng L
where ng is effective group refractive index. For SDMR, When two MRs of different radii are used, due to Vernier effect, FSR
of SDMR is given by [18]:

FSR = Q FSR1 = P FSR2 (29)

and
FSR1 FSR1
FSR =| P − Q | (30)
| FSR1 − FSR2 |
where P, Q are natural numbers.
When Eq. (29) is satisfied the SDMR is at resonant condition. The comparison between SDMR and MR is shown in Fig. 9.
Due to the vernier effect, FSR of SDMR is increased by Q times of single MR1 , it is 114 nm. The Finesse of SDMR depends on
the FSR and FWHM is given as.
FSR
Finesse = (31)
FWHM
The quality factor (Q-factor) is a measure of sharpness of resonance relative to its central frequency
res
Q -factor = (32)
FWHM

5. Force sensor

The sensitivity of SDMR force sensor depends on the cumulative phase shift of individual MRs. Since the wavelength shift
is directly proportional to phase shift (Eqs. (8)–(10)), the SDMR based force sensor is giving high sensitivity and high quality
factor compared to that of force sensor using single MR. The transmission characteristics of force sensor is shown in Fig. 10.
T
 = FSR (33)
2˘P
1070 V.R. Kolli et al. / Optik 131 (2017) 1063–1070

Fig. 10. Transmission characteristics of force sensor for different applied forces.

Table 1
Force sensors comparison.

Force sensor based FSR FWHM Quality factor 

Single microring resonator 22.8 nm 0.34 nm 4500 5 pm/1 ␮N

Double MR 114 nm 0.08 nm 19,000 100 pm/1 ␮N

6. Conclusion

We have designed and analysed serially coupled double MR based force sensor for measuring 0–1 ␮N range. It is observed
that the proposed force sensor provides high FSR, low FWHM, high quality factor and high sensitivity. This force sensor can
be used in the industrial applications where high sensitivity force measurement is needed. The design is suitable for wide
variety of applications such as Automobiles, Aerospace and Biomedical. Proposed configuration is designed by considering
the fabrication feasibility and the same can be fabricated on SOI wafer using standard process.

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