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Multimode interference couplers (MMIs) are fundamental building blocks in photonic integrated circuits. Here it is experimentally demonstrated, for the first time, a two-fold length reduction in an MMI coupler without any penalty on device performance. The design is based on a slotted 2 × 2 MMI fabricated on a commercial silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate. The slot is implemented with a subwavelength grating (SWG) comprising holes fully etched down to the oxide cladding, thereby allowing single etch step fabrication. The device has been designed using an in-house tool based on the Fourier Eigenmode Expansion Method. It has a footprint of only 3.5 μm x 23 μm and it exhibits a measured extinction ratio better than 15 dB within the full C-band (1530 nm‒1570 nm). SWG engineered slots thus offer excellent perspectives for the practical realization of MMIs couplers with substantially reduced footprint yet with outstanding performance.

Grating couplers have shown promising performance in terms of coupling efficiency and alignment tolerances as an interface between optical fibers and nanometric silicon-on-insulator (SOI) waveguides. In this paper we review our previous work, where the implementation of a fiber to chip grating coupler in micrometric rib SOI waveguide was demonstrated for the first time, showing measured coupling efficiency of -2.2dB for transverse-electric (TE) polarization. We also propose a new grating design that achieves a calculated coupling efficiency of -2dB for transverse-magnetic (TM) light. © 2012 SPIE., Silicon Photonics and Photonic Integrated Circuits III, April 16-19, 2012, Brussels, Series: Proceedings of SPIE; no. 8431

The use of grating couplers in high index contrast waveguides like silicon on insulator (SOI) offers several advantages over other coupling approaches, including better alignment tolerances and allowing for wafer-scale testing. The grating couplers were developed for nanometric SOI waveguides (Si-wires), and recently also for micrometric rib waveguides. In this paper we review our work in fiber-to-chip grating couplers for thick SOI rib waveguides, where a coupling efficiency of −2.2 dB was demonstrated experimentally. We also discuss the use of grating couplers to improve optical throughput (etendue) of a planar waveguide Fourier-Transform (FT) spectrometer implemented in thick rib waveguides.

Surface grating couplers enable efficient coupling of light between optical fibers and planar waveguide circuits. While traditional grating designs require two etch steps for efficient coupling to silicon-on-insulator waveguides, recently proposed subwavelength structured gratings can achieve the same coupling efficiencies with a single etch step, thereby significantly reducing fabrication complexity. Here we demonstrate that such couplers can be fabricated on a large scale with ultra-violet lithography, achieving a 5 dB coupling efficiency at 1,550 nm. Through both simulations and experiments we give physical insight on how pattern fidelity impacts the performance of these couplers, and propose strategies to deal with inevitable process variations.

We review our advances in diffractive and subwavelength grating coupler structures for microphotonic waveguides. We present a subwavelength grating fiber-chip edge coupler with a loss as low as 0.9 dB and with minimal wavelength dependence over a broad wavelength range exceeding 200 nm. We also present fiber-to-chip surface grating couplers based on subwavelength effective medium. The effective medium refractive index is engineered to control the strength of the grating and thereby maximize coupling efficiency, while mitigating back reflections at the same time. We analyze the fabrication tolerances of the coupler, which are of particular relevance for large scale photonic fabrication. Furthermore, we present the first grating coupler for micrometric silicon rib waveguides, which is particularly challenging since the coupler waveguide region is multimode. We experimentally demonstrate grating couplers in 1.5 μm thick silicon ridge waveguides with a coupling efficiency of 2.2 dB and a 3 dB bandwidth of 40 nm. An inverse taper is used to match the fundamental mode of the interconnection waveguide with the optimum grating coupler excitation field, with negligible higher order mode excitation. The coupler was fabricated using i-line stepper lithography and single etch step. © 2012 IEEE., 14th International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks, ICTON 2012, 2 July 2012 through 5 July 2012, Coventry

Subwavelength gratings (SWG) are periodically segmented waveguides with a pitch small enough to suppress diffraction. These waveguides can be engineered to implement almost any refractive between the refractive indices of the material that compose the waveguide, thereby opening novel design possibilities. In this communication we explore the use of SWGs in the design and optimization of a variety of integrated optical devices in the silicon-on-insulator platform: fiber-to-chip grating couplers, polarization splitters and high performance multimode interference couplers. We furthermore show that the dispersion properties of SWGs enable the design of novel filters, and discuss the design of low transitions between SWG waveguides of different characteristics. © 2012 SPIE., Silicon Photonics VII, January 22-25, 2012, San Francisco, CA, USA, Series: Proceedings of SPIE; no. 8266

The use of grating couplers for fiber to chip coupling is a promising technique, allowing wafer scale testing with no need for facet preparation. Albeit grating couplers have been extensively studied for Si-wire waveguides, the implementation on SOI micrometric rib waveguides remains challenging, mainly due to excitation of higher order modes. In this work we show for the first time that monomode excitation of the grating can be achieved by properly designing the access waveguide. With the proposed approach the circuit can be fabricated using standard i-line stepper litography with a single etch step. The optimized design for a 1.5m thick silicon layer achieves a simulated coupling efficiency of 65.6% at 1.55m. Preliminary experimental results yield a coupler loss of 4dB. © 2011 IEEE., 2011 ICO International Conference on Information Photonics, IP 2011, 18 May 2011 through 20 May 2011, Ottawa, ON

In this work a fiber to chip grating coupler in micrometric SOI rib waveguides is experimentally demonstrated, for the first time, with -4dB coupling efficiency when an inverse taper is used as excitation stage. © 2011 OSA., 37th European Conference on Optical Communication and Exhibition, ECOC 2011, 18 September 2011 through 22 September 2011, Geneva

We propose an ultra-broadband multimode interference (MMI) coupler with a wavelength range exceeding the O, E, S, C, L and U optical communication bands. For the first time, the dispersion property of the MMI section is engineered using a subwavelength grating structure to mitigate wavelength dependence of the device. We present a 2 × 2 MMI design with a bandwidth of 450nm, an almost fivefold enhancement compared to conventional designs, maintaining insertion loss, power imbalance and MMI phase deviation below 1dB, 0.6dB and 3°, respectively. The design is performed using an in-house tool based on the 2D Fourier Eigenmode Expansion Method (F-EEM) and verified with a 3D Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) simulator. © 2013 Optical Society of America.

Grating couplers are widely used as an efficient and versatile fiber-chip coupling structure in nanometric silicon wire waveguides. The implementation of efficient grating couplers in micrometric silicon-on-insulator (SOI) rib waveguides is, however, challenging, since the coupler waveguide region is multimode. Here we experimentally demonstrate grating couplers in 1:5 ?m-thick SOI rib waveguides with a coupling efficiency of ?2:2 dB and a 3 dB bandwidth of 40nm. An inverse taper is used to adiabatically transform the interconnection waveguide mode to the optimum grating coupler excitation field with negligible higher order Bloch mode excitation. Couplers are fabricated in the same etch step as the waveguides using i-line stepper lithography. The benefits of wafer-scale testing and device characterization without facet preparation are thus attained at no additional cost. © 2011 Optical Society of America.