Open Access

We studied an impact of phased array on optical performance and size of SiN based AWG-spectrometers, which plays a significant role in integration on chip. AWG-spectrometer was designed for TM-polarization and 850 nm central wavelength.

We present design and simulation of 16-channel, 100-GHz silicon nitride based AWG using BeamPROP simulation engine of RSoft photonic tool. The AWG was designed for TM-polarized light with central wavelength of 850 nm. The input design parameters were calculated applying AWG-Parameters tool. For this purpose, we created a ridge waveguide structure, used in the design of the AWG layout, and performed FEM simulation. The output of the BPM simulation of AWG structure are the transmission characteristics, which was used to calculate transmission parameters defining optical properties of simulated AWG. The achieved simulation results are in a good agreement with the design.

Progress in integrated photonics enables development of integrated photonics circuits with new unique properties, circuits of the future, and overcomes current limits in information and communication technologies. The packaging of photonic integrated circuits is necessary for taking them out of research laboratories into real implementation in the information and communication technology applications. Telecom optical fibers are still being the best transmission medium of digital data and analogue signals for long distance applications. The effective coupling of optical radiation between telecom optical fiber with ten microns core dimension and photonic integrated circuits optical waveguides with submicron dimensions are necessary. To address these challenges, we present our concept of photonics integrated circuit packaging with radio frequency, direct current and fiber array ports with automated active alignment system.

Optical splitters are passive optical components, which have found applications in a wide range of telecom, sensing, medical and many other scientific areas. Low-index contrast optical splitters (Silica-on-Silicon (SoS) based waveguide devices) feature many advantages such as low fiber coupling losses and low propagation losses. They are considered an attractive DWDM solution in the telecommunication for all optical signal processing in optical communication systems. Nowadays the steadily increasing data volume in communication networks is driven by a rapid proliferation of home-based and business computers, storage capacities, processing capabilities and the extensive availability of Internet. The challenge is to transfer high data volumes in short periods of time over high distances as lossless as possible. The task of the optical splitters in Fiber-to-the-x (FTTx) network is to split one optical signal in many identical signals bringing for example the same TV signal in different households. Of course, the more buildings can be served by one optical splitter the lower are the installation costs. High-index contrast optical splitters (such as silicon, silicon nitride or polymer based waveguide devices) feature much smaller waveguide size compared to low index contrast splitters. Such compact devices can easily be implemented on-chip and have already been used in the development of optical sensors, devices for DNA diagnostics and for infrared spectroscopy. We will present the latest achievements in the design of two mostly used optical splitters (MMI and Y-branch) and discuss their advantages and disadvantages. Finally, some applications of the splitters developed in the frame of various projects will be presented. This work was carried out in the framework of the project PHOCOP (no. SK-AT-2017-0013) and NAMOPRISIN (no. SK-AT-2017-0005) from the Slovak research and development agency of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic and SK 16/2018 and 15/2018 from OeAD-GmbH.