Compact integrated star coupler on silicon-on-insulator

Asymmetrical rib waveguide bends on silicon-on-insulator were applied to the design of a compact integrated 39 /spl times/ 39 star coupler. With bend radius of 500 /spl mu/m, the effective chip size of the coupler is nearly 1 cm/sup 2/. The average excess loss as low as 1.3 dB was achieved at wavelength 1.55 /spl mu/m. This bend configuration is not single-mode, but by appropriate design, the fundamental mode propagation can be achieved. It can be used in arrayed waveguide grating devices based on SOI.

[1]  Tao Chu,et al.  Optical directional coupler based on Si-wire waveguides , 2005, First IEEE International Conference on Group IV Photonics, 2004..

[2]  A. Vonsovici,et al.  The single-mode condition for semiconductor rib waveguides with large cross section , 1998 .

[3]  C. Henry,et al.  Efficient multichannel integrated optics star coupler on silicon , 1989, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[4]  B. Jalali,et al.  5 x 9 integrated optical star coupler in silicon-on-insulator technology , 1996, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[5]  H. Takahashi,et al.  Fabrication of wavelength-insensitive 8*8 star coupler , 1992, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[6]  Z. Cendes.  Vector finite elements for electromagnetic field computation , 1991 .

[7]  Design and fabrication of integrated-optic 8*8 star coupler , 1991 .

[8]  B. Jalali,et al.  Optical couplers in silicon-on-insulator technology , 1996, Summaries of papers presented at the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics.

[9]  Directional couplers realized on silicon-on-insulator , 2005, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.