Novel Wavelength Multiplexer Using (N+1) x (N+1) Arrayed Waveguide Grating and Polarization-Combiner-Rotator on SOI Platform

We propose an ultra-compact novel wavelength multiplexer employing a (N + 1) x (N + 1) arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) and a polarization-combiner-rotator (PCR) on the SOI platform, to realize a multiplexing for 2N wavelengths with a spacing of Delta lambda. The (N + 1) x (N + 1) AWG works at a bidirectional way to provide two groups of N x 1 wavelength multiplexing with each group having a channel spacing of 2x Delta lambda, and the central wavelengths of all input channels in one group have a wavelength shift of Delta lambda with respect to those in the other group. The double channel spacing results in a significant decrease on the footprint of the (N + 1) x (N + 1) AWG-based multiplexer compared with a conventional 2N x 1 AWG multiplexer with the same wavelength spacing Delta lambda. Due to the fact that a single mode fiber is insensitive to the polarization of input light, if we consider short reach datacom applications such as 100/400 GbE, the two separate multiplexing outputs of the (N + 1) x (N + 1) AWG can be combined as one output with one half wavelengths working at TE polarization and the other at TM polarization by employing a low loss and broadband PCR. In the experiment, we demonstrate a 16 x 200 GHz multiplexer based on a 9 x 9 AWG. The experimental results show that the on-chip loss of the fabricated multiplexer is 2.7 dB and the loss uniformity is 0.5 dB. The 1-dB and 3-dB bandwidths are >0.56 nm (i.e., 35% of the wavelength spacing) and >1.1 nm (i.e., 69% of the wavelength spacing), respectively. They can also be further increased by decreasing the gap between adjacent input waveguides at the interfaces of star couplers of the designed AWG without inducing an excess loss. The proposed multiplexer has great potential for application to future super large capacity (> Tb/s) data transmission systems.

Automated summary

A novel wavelength multiplexer utilizing AWG and PCR technologies for wavelength multiplexing with reduced footprint and loss has been proposed. Experiments show promising results with low on-chip loss and high bandwith, indicating great potential for future high-capacity data transmission systems.