Low-loss and flat pass-band 1×8 arrayed-waveguide grating multi/demltiplexers with athermal spectrum for metropolitan area networks

摘要

Wavelength division multi/demultiplexing (WDM) technology has recently been extended to metropolitan area and access area networks due to the rapid growth of the Internet. These short-distance WDM networks require low-cost and wide channel spectral multi/demultiplexers that operate athermally [1, 2]. Moreover, the need to reduce multi/demultiplexer loss has become more important because we cannot employ expensive optical amplifiers in these networks. Silica-based arrayed-waveguide grating (AWG) multi/demultiplexers are widely used in long haul networks. They have excellent features that include channel loss uniformity, flat pass-bands and athermal responses, and it may be possible to reduce their cost by using the wafer process technique. However, the insertion losses of AWGs for WDM applications with small channel number are still higher than those of other components such as thin-film WDM filters [3]. No one has yet realized a small-channel-number AWG multi/demultiplexer module that offers high-performance levels including a low insertion loss. In this paper, we describe novel low-loss and flat pass-band AWG multi/demultiplexers that do not require thermal control for use in metropolitan area networks. We realized these high-performance AWGs by taking several insertion losses causing factors into consideration.