Total internal reflection-evanescent coupler for fiber-to-waveguide integration of planar optoelectric devices

We present a method for parallel coupling from a single-mode fiber, or fiber ribbon, into a silicon-on-insulator waveguide for integration with silicon optoelectronic circuits. The coupler incorporates the advantages of the vertically tapered waveguides and prism couplers, yet offers the flexibility of planar integration. The coupler can be fabricated by use of either wafer polishing technology or gray-scale photolithography. When optimal coupling is achieved in our experimental setup, the coupler can be packaged by epoxy bonding to form a fiber-waveguide parallel coupler or connector. Two-dimensional electromagnetic calculation predicts a coupling efficiency of 77% (- 1.14-dB insertion loss) for a silicon-to-silicon coupler with a uniform tunnel layer. The coupling efficiency is experimentally achieved to be 46% (-3.4-dB insertion loss), excluding the loss in silicon and the reflections from the input surface and the output facet.     

光通信中的玻璃无源器件的制备与研究

本文报道了以高质量的BK7光学玻璃为衬底,通过稀释Ag+-Na+离子交换技术,制备出低损耗的表面条波导,并用近场法测量出条波导的模场分布曲线。给出光纤与波导耦合的失配损耗为0.54dB,条波导传输损耗为0.21dB/cm.以及在此工作基础上,成功地研制了适用于大容量相于光通信系统的1×2和1×4单模波导分束器。     

4 × 4 Plastic Optical Fiber Star Coupler Incorporated with a Common Polymer Waveguide Optical Power Distribution Region

Abstract

Two types of 4 × 4 plastic optical fiber star couplers incorporated with a polymer waveguide as the optical power distributor are proposed, and their high performances are demonstrated. The characteristics of the proposed star coupler are investigated based on ray optics, and its power distribution performance is evaluated in terms of the flatness of the coupling ratio and the amount of the excess loss. Under the best conditions, the flatness of the coupling ratio and the excess loss of the fabricated device have been obtained as 2.0 dB and 2.5 dB, respectively.     

Four-wavelength DBR laser array with waveguide couplers fabricated using selective MOVPE growth

We have developed an integrated multiwavelength laser with waveguide couplers using a novel selective metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxy (MOVPE) technique. The lasing wavelength was controlled by modulating the effective refractive index of distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) waveguides. Array lasing wavelengths were distributed from 1548.0 to 1553.5 nm with an average spacing of 1.8 nm. The propagation loss of the waveguide coupler was about 16 dB for inner ports and 20 dB for outer ports with a 6 dB splitting loss. Four-wavelength laser outputs were coupled into a single-mode fibre.     

一种改进的2×2 SOI Mach-Zehnder热光开关

本文设计并制作了基于强限制多模干涉耦合器的2×2 SOI马赫-曾德热光开关.这种光开关采用了深刻蚀结构的多模干涉耦合器和输入/输出波导,较大地提高了干涉耦合器的性能并减少了连接耦合损耗.同时,在调制臂区域采用浅刻蚀结构,保持其单模调制状态.深刻蚀多模干涉耦合器具有优越的特性,在实验中测得不均衡度只有0.03 dB,插入损耗－0.6 dB.基于这种耦合器的新型热光开关,其插入损耗为－6.8 dB,其中包括光纤-波导耦合损耗－4.3 dB,开关时间为6.8 μs.     

Acrylic-based asymmetric and variable coupling ratio Y-branch plastic optical fiber coupler

Acrylic-based asymmetric and variable couplers have been developed using a single structured Y-branch design with a high-index-contrast waveguide taper and a void structure for fiber attenuation using the lateral displacement of two fibers. Device fabrication is performed by producing the device structure on an acrylic block using a computer numerical control (CNC) machine tool. The fabricated device has an excess loss of 5.85 dB, while the coupling ratios are 56.86 and 43.14% when the device is operated as a 3 dB coupler. In the asymmetric coupler mode, the coupling ratio ranges from 44.84 to 8.01% for port 1 and 55.16 to 91.99% for port 2. The excess loss of this device varies from 5.42 to 7.64 dB. In the variable coupler mode, the coupling ratio ranges from 10.09 to 32.88% for port 1 and from 89.91 to 67.12% for port 2. The excess loss of the device varies from 5.85 to 8.49 dB.     

Fabrication of ultralow-loss Si/SiO(2) waveguides by roughness reduction

We demonstrate 0.8-dB/cm transmission loss for a single-mode, strip Si/SiO(2) waveguide with submicrometer cross-sectional dimensions. We compare the conventional waveguide-fabrication method with two smoothing technologies that we have developed, oxidation smoothing and anisotropic etching. We observe significant reduction of sidewall roughness with our smoothing technologies, which directly results in reduced scattering losses. The rapid increase in the scattering losses as the waveguide dimension is miniaturized, as seen in conventionally fabricated waveguides, is effectively suppressed in the waveguides made with our smoothing technologies. In the oxidation smoothing case, the loss is reduced from 32 dB/cm for the conventional fabrication method to 0.8 dB/cm for the single-mode waveguide width of 0.5 microm . This is to our knowledge the smallest reported loss for a high-index-difference system such as a Si/SiO(2) strip waveguide.     

Ultra-low-loss inverted taper coupler for silicon-on-insulator ridge waveguide

An ultra-low-loss coupler for interfacing a silicon-on-insulator ridge waveguide and a single-mode fiber in both polarizations is presented. The inverted taper coupler, embedded in a polymer waveguide, is optimized for both the transverse-magnetic and transverse-electric modes through tapering the width of the silicon-on-insulator waveguide from 450 nm down to less than 15 nm applying a thermal oxidation process. Two inverted taper couplers are integrated with a 3-mm long silicon-on-insulator ridge waveguide in the fabricated sample. The measured coupling losses of the inverted taper coupler for transverse-magnetic and transverse-electric modes are ∼ 0.36 dB and ∼ 0.66 dB per connection, respectively.     

Integration of electro-optic polymer modulators with low-loss fluorinated polymer waveguides

We have demonstrated a hybrid Mach-Zehnder optical modulator consisting of a large-core, low-loss fluorinated passive polymer waveguide and an electro-optic (EO) polymer waveguide. The combination exhibits low fiber coupling loss to the passive waveguide and reduced transmission loss because the EO polymer waveguide is used only in the active region. The two waveguides are connected by vertical tapers that permit low-loss adiabatic coupling between the two modes. The half-wave voltage and the insertion loss of the fabricated modulator are 3.6 V and 6 dB, respectively, at a wavelength of 1.55 microm . The estimated coupling loss with the standard single-mode fiber is ~0.5 dB.     

硅衬底上锗硅合金光波导的研制

报道锗硅合金在λ＝１．３μｍ的脊形单模光波导的设计，工艺及测量结果。这种光波导的传播损耗已达０．７ｄＢ／ｃｍ。脊形的高４－８μｍ，宽８－１２μｍ，均和单模光纤芯径相当，此外，其数值孔径在光波导的输入，输出端均能和单模光纤匹配，它已满足硅光集成对光波导的要求。文中最后报道了用这种锗硅合金光波导试制Ｙ分支器，并观察到二支分路输出的单模光斑。     

Optical fiber coupling to single-mode silica-based planar lightwave circuits with fiber-guiding grooves

To enable alignmentfree optical fiber coupling to single-mode silica-based waveguides, fiber-guiding grooves are fabricated in the same substrate as waveguide circuits.These grooves are used successfully to couple optical fiber to Waveguides. An average, fiber-to-waveguide coupling loss of 0.6 dB per interface is obtained with eight arrayedguiding grooves, and it is expected that this will further be reduced to 0.2 dB per interface. The coupling loss varies by ±0.3 dB during thermal cycling between -10°C and +60°C.     

Design and fabrication of compact 3-dB coupler in silicon-on-insulator

A novel compact 3-dB coupler is proposed and fabricated in silicon-on-insulator. The new coupler provides large output waveguide spacing of 125.0 μm with short device length of 867.0 μm and large cross-section of 6.0 × 4.0 μm. The device length can be remained essentially unchanged even when the output spacing is further enlarged to realize the complex applications in photonic integrated circuits. The fabricated device exhibits excess loss of 6.3 dB and low imbalance of 0.26 dB.     

Design for beam splitting components employing silicon-on-insulator rib waveguide structures

We present a new design for beam splitting components employing a silicon-on-insulator rib waveguide structures. In the new design, a high-index thin-film layer is deposited in the rib section to reduce the wave field dispersive tails in the slab section and accordingly render the mode field a confined spot. This in turn improves the beam splitting performance of some conventional waveguide components such as y branches and multimode interference couplers (MMICs), in terms of the excess loss, fiber coupling loss, and compactness of these components. For a 1 x 2 y-branch beam splitter, the excess loss can be as small as 0.43 dB in the new design, which is much lower than that for a conventional rib waveguide structure (which is 1.28 dB). For a 1 x 2 MMIC in our example, the new rib waveguide structure presents an excess loss of 0.064 dB for the TE mode and 0.046 dB for the TM mode, with negligible nonuniformity in dimensions of 30 microm x 1040 microm, whereas its counterpart (i.e., the one with the same dimensions but without a thin-film layer) presents an excess loss of approximately 0.86 dB for both modes. A conventional MMIC must have dimensions larger than 70 microm x 5650 microm to maintain almost the same low excess loss.     

InP基矩形马赫-曾德高速电光调制器行波电极设计与测试

提出了一种由新型沟槽耦合器和90°弯曲波导构成的InGaAsP/InP基矩形马赫-曾德电光调制器,对该调制器的L型波导相移臂设计了T型类微带行波电极.首先利用电极的等效电路估算带宽上限,进而在考虑阻抗匹配、回波损耗以及带宽等性能的基础上,使用有限元方法对电极的传输、输入/输出以及过渡区的结构参量进行优化.仿真结果表明由于受到电极输入及过渡区的性能限制,设计的整体行波电极匹配阻抗大于42Ω,回波损耗小于-15dB,带宽可达65GHz.测试制备的Ti/Au行波电极,得到回波损耗为-12dB和带宽为20GHz的最优性能.     

Design for broadband high-efficiency grating couplers

In this Letter, we propose general optimization methods to design broadband high-efficiency grating couplers for planar waveguides. We attribute the coupling bandwidth to the mismatch of effective indices between the diffracted beam and the actual grating structure around the operation wavelength for fiber to waveguide excitation. The coupling bandwidth formula is deduced. A simple parameter-separate optimization procedure is proposed for general layered grating couplers for high coupling efficiency. Using our principle, we optimized a grating coupler for a horizontal slot waveguide operating at wavelength 1.55 μm for TM polarization. The grating coupler has 1 dB bandwidth of 60 nm and coupling efficiency of 65% with incident light from single-mode optical fiber (SMF) at 8°.     

High efficiency silicon nitride grating coupler

In this paper, we have designed, fabricated and characterized silicon nitride grating couplers with high efficiency at 1490 nm. The devices are fabricated using deep UV photolithography with resolution requirement of ～500 nm. The grating coupler fabricated yields a peak coupling efficiency of ?5.1 dB. The 1-dB bandwidth of the grating coupler is 60 nm.     

电光聚合物波导中的锥形结构

提出并设计了一种基于电光聚合物的锥形波导,可用于单模光纤与电光聚合物波导器件之间的连接.锥形波导中采用了宽度锥形和折射率锥形结构.宽度锥形采用劈形形状,通过宽度和折射率的缓慢变化实现模场转换.劈形形状的宽度锥形具有较小的损耗且易于制作,折射率锥形可采用灰度掩膜光刻技术制作.研究了锥形波导的传输损耗与锥形波导的长度、波导宽度和厚度、材料吸收损耗等参数的关系及其优化,分析了锥形波导中的功率传输、模场分布与模式转换效率.结果显示锥形波导的传输损耗小于0.37 dB,光纤-波导-光纤的连接损耗优于1.62 dB,对插入损耗的改善达到8.78 dB,模场转换效率达到了83.7%.     

Micro-optic devices for fiber-optic communications

A novel approach, “micro-optics”, is proposed to realize coupling/branching in fiber-optic communications. The operation is based on the beam transformation in a graded index rod (beam undulation and beam size change), in association with reflection or refraction at a graded index rod facet. Small-size couplers/dividers have been devised by inserting a semitransparent mirror between the facets of two graded index rods with a length of a quarter of the undulation period. Their best features are small size, simple structure, low insertion loss, and wide application areas. An excess insertion loss as low as 0.5 dB has been realized in a 3-dB divider with SELFOC® rods. As further applications of them, wavelength division multiplexers/demultiplexers have been developed by replacing the semitransparent mirror with a dielectric interference filter. An insertion loss of as low as 1.2 dB and isolation of more than 20 dB for wavelength separation of 20 nm have been realized. Results are also shown on the other type of micro-optic couplers/dividers.     

A high isolation W-band MMIC drain type cascode single balanced mixer

We present a high isolation W-band MMIC drain type cascode single balanced mixer of high LO-to-RF isolation and wide band with conversion characteristic using the high directivity monolithic tandem couplers and 0.1 μm GaAs-based metamorphic high electron mobility transistors (MHEMTs). The fabricated mixer consists of two cascode MHEMT mixers and two tandem couplers using the air-bridge crossovers. We establish a drain type cascode mixer structure where the LO signal is applied to the drain port in the mixing component of common source MHEMT circuit. The tandem coupler exhibits good couplings (2.92-3.8 dB), low return losses (−32.7 dB), and isolations (15.4-39.2 dB) in a wide bandwidth of 75-110 GHz. The mixer shows a conversion loss of 9.8 dB at 94 GHz, an output P1dB of −14.8 dBm at LO frequency of 94.542 GHz, and LO-to-RF isolations of 29.5-39.5 dB at 94-100 GHz.     

Estimation of the performance of a 3-dB Y-junction optical coupler with a channel profile of proton-exchanged lithium niobate

A 3-dB optical coupler (power splitter) based on a Y-junction waveguide with a channel profile of proton-exchanged lithium niobate has been modeled. Finite difference beam propagation method has been used to investigate light wave propagation in axially varying waveguides. It is found that the structure splits the input power equally at the Y-junction with an efficiency of 99% and an average excess loss ?0.04 dB. The novelty of the coupling structure proposed is its capability to function as a wavelength-independent 3-dB coupler while maintaining very low-power imbalance for widespread optical communication wavelengths of 1.3 and 1.55 µm.