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CMOS-Compatible Ultralow-Loss Three-Step Silicon Edge Coupler with Substrate Substitution in the Whole Communication Band

Edge coupler is a key component of silicon-based optoelectronic chips, which dramatically reduces the coupling loss between fibers and transmission waveguides. Here, we propose an ultralow-loss three-step silicon edge coupler based on a 130 nm CMOS process. By replacing the silicon substrate with a...

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Autores principales: Wang, Zhen, Zhang, Jin, Zhang, Lei, Ruan, Xiaoke, Tang, Weijie, Chu, Tao
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9861178/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36677127
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/mi14010066
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author Wang, Zhen
Zhang, Jin
Zhang, Lei
Ruan, Xiaoke
Tang, Weijie
Chu, Tao
author_facet Wang, Zhen
Zhang, Jin
Zhang, Lei
Ruan, Xiaoke
Tang, Weijie
Chu, Tao
author_sort Wang, Zhen
collection PubMed
description Edge coupler is a key component of silicon-based optoelectronic chips, which dramatically reduces the coupling loss between fibers and transmission waveguides. Here, we propose an ultralow-loss three-step silicon edge coupler based on a 130 nm CMOS process. By replacing the silicon substrate with a material with a lower refractive index than silicon oxide, the silicon leakage loss and polarization-dependent loss can be significantly improved. This structure avoids the existence of a cantilever, which enhances the mechanical strength of the edge coupler. Coupling with standard single-mode fiber, the simulation results demonstrate that the TE/TM mode has an ultralow loss of 0.63/1.08 dB at 1310 nm and 0.57/1.34 dB at 1550 nm, and the 0.5 dB bandwidth covering the entire communication band is about 400 nm. In the entire communication band, the polarization-dependent loss is less than 0.8 dB. Furthermore, we propose a taper shape design method based on mode analysis, which can be adapted for any taper to improve its compactness. Compared with the parabolic shape, the coupling loss of the edge coupler with a length of 460 μm for the TE mode is improved by 0.3 dB on average, this edge coupler provides a feasible solution for fiber-to-chip coupling and is perfectly suitable for wavelength division multiplexing applications in optical communications.
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spelling pubmed-98611782023-01-22 CMOS-Compatible Ultralow-Loss Three-Step Silicon Edge Coupler with Substrate Substitution in the Whole Communication Band Wang, Zhen Zhang, Jin Zhang, Lei Ruan, Xiaoke Tang, Weijie Chu, Tao Micromachines (Basel) Article Edge coupler is a key component of silicon-based optoelectronic chips, which dramatically reduces the coupling loss between fibers and transmission waveguides. Here, we propose an ultralow-loss three-step silicon edge coupler based on a 130 nm CMOS process. By replacing the silicon substrate with a material with a lower refractive index than silicon oxide, the silicon leakage loss and polarization-dependent loss can be significantly improved. This structure avoids the existence of a cantilever, which enhances the mechanical strength of the edge coupler. Coupling with standard single-mode fiber, the simulation results demonstrate that the TE/TM mode has an ultralow loss of 0.63/1.08 dB at 1310 nm and 0.57/1.34 dB at 1550 nm, and the 0.5 dB bandwidth covering the entire communication band is about 400 nm. In the entire communication band, the polarization-dependent loss is less than 0.8 dB. Furthermore, we propose a taper shape design method based on mode analysis, which can be adapted for any taper to improve its compactness. Compared with the parabolic shape, the coupling loss of the edge coupler with a length of 460 μm for the TE mode is improved by 0.3 dB on average, this edge coupler provides a feasible solution for fiber-to-chip coupling and is perfectly suitable for wavelength division multiplexing applications in optical communications. MDPI 2022-12-27 /pmc/articles/PMC9861178/ /pubmed/36677127 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/mi14010066 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Wang, Zhen
Zhang, Jin
Zhang, Lei
Ruan, Xiaoke
Tang, Weijie
Chu, Tao
CMOS-Compatible Ultralow-Loss Three-Step Silicon Edge Coupler with Substrate Substitution in the Whole Communication Band
title CMOS-Compatible Ultralow-Loss Three-Step Silicon Edge Coupler with Substrate Substitution in the Whole Communication Band
title_full CMOS-Compatible Ultralow-Loss Three-Step Silicon Edge Coupler with Substrate Substitution in the Whole Communication Band
title_fullStr CMOS-Compatible Ultralow-Loss Three-Step Silicon Edge Coupler with Substrate Substitution in the Whole Communication Band
title_full_unstemmed CMOS-Compatible Ultralow-Loss Three-Step Silicon Edge Coupler with Substrate Substitution in the Whole Communication Band
title_short CMOS-Compatible Ultralow-Loss Three-Step Silicon Edge Coupler with Substrate Substitution in the Whole Communication Band
title_sort cmos-compatible ultralow-loss three-step silicon edge coupler with substrate substitution in the whole communication band
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9861178/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36677127
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/mi14010066
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