Broadband, Polarization-Insensitive Lensed Edge Couplers for Silicon Photonics

Snyder, Bradley; Lepage, Guy; Balakrishnan, Sadhishkumar; Verheyen, Peter; Pantouvaki, Marianna; Absil, P.; Campenhout, Joris Van

doi:10.1109/ectc.2018.00130

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 13 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Grating couplers have some major advantages including compact size, wafer-level testing capability, and flexible coupling position, while there are also some drawbacks such as a relatively low coupling efficiency typically below 3 dB, narrow bandwidth, and high wavelength sensitivity. As for the butt coupling regime, under which the fiber is typically placed at the wafer facet and aligned with the Si waveguides horizontally, edge couplers are commonly applied [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]. Edge couplers can achieve rather high coupling efficiency, broad bandwidth, and polarization independence, but they also have some limitations including relatively a larger footprint than grating couplers, fixed coupling position, and more strict requirements of the coupling facet.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Edge Couplers in Silicon Photonic Integrated Circuits: A Review

Cheng

et al. 2020

Applied Sciences

151

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Silicon photonics has drawn increasing attention in the past few decades and is a promising key technology for future daily applications due to its various merits including ultra-low cost, high integration density owing to the high refractive index of silicon, and compatibility with current semiconductor fabrication process. Optical interconnects is an important issue in silicon photonic integrated circuits for transmitting light, and fiber-to-chip optical interconnects is vital in application scenarios such as data centers and optical transmission systems. There are mainly two categories of fiber-to-chip optical coupling: off-plane coupling and in-plane coupling. Grating couplers work under the former category, while edge couplers function as in-plane coupling. In this paper, we mainly focus on edge couplers in silicon photonic integrated circuits. We deliver an introduction to the research background, operation mechanisms, and design principles of silicon photonic edge couplers. The state-of-the-art of edge couplers is reviewed according to the different structural configurations of the device, while identifying the performance, fabrication feasibility, and applications. In addition, a brief comparison between edge couplers and grating couplers is conducted. Packaging issues are also discussed, and several prospective techniques for further improvements of edge couplers are proposed.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Edge Couplers in Silicon Photonic Integrated Circuits: A Review

Cheng

et al. 2020

Applied Sciences

151

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…To address the challenges posed by minimum fabrication width, a common approach involves introducing materials with lower refractive indices. Edge couplers assisted by silicon oxide (SiO 2 ) [8,9], silicon oxynitride [10,11], and polymer [12,13] tapers have been widely studied. However, the fabrication processes of these devices remain relatively immature.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultralow-loss polarization-insensitive silicon nitride-assisted double-etched silicon edge coupler with polarization splitting

Wang,

Zhang,

Ning

2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

High-performance silicon-based edge couplers for interfacing with standard single-mode fibers encounter significant challenges due to limitations imposed by the minimum fabrication width. Here, we propose a silicon nitride-assisted double-etched O-band silicon edge coupler with a minimum width of 180 nm. Notably, the polarization splitting function naturally integrates into this edge coupler. Through simulation, the proposed edge coupler, without a cantilever, demonstrates a minimum coupling loss of 0.53/0.82 dB with an average extinction ratio of 42/18 dB for TE/TM polarization. Additionally, this edge coupler exhibits weak polarization dependence with an average difference of only 0.24 dB in the O band. Leveraging a segmented taper shape design, the 0.5-dB bandwidth of coupling loss extends to approximately 100 nm for both TE and TM polarizations, despite the inclusion of two evanescent coupling parts.

show abstract

“…However, this vertical coupling method also has the disadvantages of low coupling efficiency (loss higher than 3 dB), narrow bandwidth, polarization sensitivity, etc. An edge coupler is typically utilized in the butt-coupling mechanism, in which the optical fiber is typically positioned on the wafer end face, aligned horizontally with the Si waveguide [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] . Edge couplers have the advantages of higher coupling efficiency, a wider bandwidth, and polarization insensitivity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%