Silica based optical waveguide devices, with novel fiber guide structure for alignment-free fiber coupling

Devices with silica based optical waveguides are attracting much attention for various optical communication systems, such as optical subscriber systems, optical interconnects and so on [1-3]. Among them, silica waveguide devices with V-groove fiber guide, giving rise to cost reduction in module assembly, are particularly attractive for optical subscriber systems. However, conventional V-groove design requires precise mask alignment along specific crystal orientation, which may deteriorate total throughput of devices. In this paper, the authors demonstrate silica based optical waveguide devices, with novel fiber guide design. Average coupling loss, as low as 0.36dB, with single mode fiber, has been achieved from 80 individual devices.