Slow Light Mode at the Degenerate Band Edge for True Time Delay Applications

Tuneable true time delay device is designed at the degenerate band edge (DBE) by using two coupled periodic silicon ridge waveguides. The holes of the two ridge waveguides are well-tuned to let four modes couple and degenerate at the bandgap providing a slow light mode (the DBE mode). Transfer matrix method is utilized to trace and verify the slow light mode in the device. A 25-unit cell device (
$10~ \boldsymbol {\mu m}$
length device) is constructed to realize the slow mode at the DBE with 70% transmission and 42.5 ps signal delay over 130 GHz dispersion free bandwidth. Liquid crystal cladding layer is incorporated to provide continuous control of the slow mode velocity around the DBE resonance for UWB antenna array beamforming applications.