Authors:	H. Sattari, A.Y. Takabayashi, Y. Zhang, P. Verheyen, W. Bogaerts, N. Quack
Title:	Compact broadband suspended silicon photonic directional coupler
Format:	International Journal
Publication date:	5/2020
Journal/Conference/Book:	Optics Letters
Volume(Issue):	45(11) p.2997-3000
DOI:	10.1364/OL.394470
Citations:	24 (Dimensions.ai - last update: 24/11/2024) 18 (OpenCitations - last update: 27/6/2024) Look up on Google Scholar
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Abstract

Directional couplers are extensively used in Photonic Integrated Circuits as basic components for efficient on-chip photonic signal routing. Conventionally, directional couplers are fully encapsulated in the technology’s waveguide cladding material. We here demonstrate a compact directional coupler fully suspended in air. The coupler is designed and built based on IMEC’s iSiPP50G standard platform, and HF vapor etching based post-processing allows to release the freestanding component. Low insertion loss of 0.5 dB at a wavelength of 1560 nm and a 1 dB bandwidth of 35 nm at a wavelength of 1550 nm have been confirmed experimentally. With a small footprint of 20um x 30um and high mechanical stability, this directional coupler can serve as a basic building block for large-scale silicon photonic MEMS circuits.

Related Research Topics

• MEMS and NEMS optical actuators in SOI
• Reconfigurable Photonic Circuits

Related Projects

• H2020: MORPHIC (MEMS-based zerO-power Reconfigurable Photonic ICs)