Aarhus

University

Arrayed Waveguide Gratings

Photonics Integrated Circuits
- Course ProjectQ2 2015/2016

Student:

Coordinator:

Ionut-Adrian Hurmuz

Martijn Heck

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Table of Contents
1.

Introduction ................................................................................................................................................3

2.

AWG Basic Design .................................................................................................................................3

3.

Components and Working Principle ............................................................................................5

4.

Important Properties and Parameters .........................................................................................6

5.

Applications AWG Wavelength Demultiplexers ................................................................7

5.1 Fabrication Platforms Silica-on-Silicon .................................................................................7
5.2 Fabrication Platforms Indium Phosphide (InP) .................................................................8
5.3 Fabrication Platforms: Silicon ........................................................................................................8
5.3 Application ..............................................................................................................................................9
5.4 Basic design and BPM simulation of an InP AWG demultiplexer .......................... 10

6.

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 13

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Arrayed Waveguide Gratings

1.

Introduction

In the past two decades optical fiber communications has totally changed the way
world communicates and transports information. It is a technological revolution that
has fundamentally transformed the core of telecommunications, its basic science,
and its industry. At the same time the complexity of optical systems is steadily
increasing due to innovations like wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) and the
transition from simple point-to point transmission to WDM networking.
Integrated optics was conceived in analogy to electronic integrated circuits to
handle increased systems complexity and to reduce the cost of packaging and of
subsystems. Its early successes included integrated guided-wave wavelength filters
and WDM multiplexers, WDM laser sources such as distributed-feedback (DFB) lasers
providing spectral control, and chips integrating lasers with high-speed modulators.
WDM is the technology for achieving extremely high data rates over fiber-optic
cabling. Also known as Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM),
Wavelength Division Multiplexing is likely to replace Time Division Multiplexing (TDM)
as the standard transmission method for high-speed fiber-optic backbones in the
next few years.
In these systems, signals at different wavelengths are mixed and transmitted through
a single optical fiber, and this technology provides us with a high per-fiber
transmission capacity and low communication costs. A wavelength
multi/demultiplexer is a key device in such WDM systems. Research on integrated
optic (de)multiplexers has, since the early 1990s, increasingly been focused on
grating-based and phased-array (PHASAR) based devices, also called arrayed
waveguide gratings (AWG).
The AWG is a transmission grating that consists of multiple channel waveguides of
different lengths. These waveguides are fabricated on a substrate by using planar
lightwave circuit (PLC) technology that includes glass film deposition,
photolithography, and dry etching.
The features of AWG multi/demultiplexers are their compact size, stable operation in
the presence of mechanical vibration, high long-term reliability, and mass
production.

2.

AWG Basic Design

An AWG functions similar to an optical prism, by imaging the input optical field onto
different spatial output locations based on the wavelength of the incoming light.
Figure 1.1 shows the waveguide layout of the AWG multi/demultiplexer, which is the
same as that of a conventional spectrometer. The concave alignment of the
waveguide ends acts as a lens and the AWG acts as a diffraction grating.
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Accordingly, lights with different wavelengths are focused at corresponding ports
when a wavelength multiplexed light is launched into the input port.

Figure 1.1 AWG Layout

The diffraction angle and wavelength satisfy the following grating equation:
(1)
Where:

nc: effective refractive index of channel waveguides in AWG

ns: effective refractive index of slab waveguide

d : grating pitch (distance between waveguide ends of AWG)
L: length difference between channel waveguides in AWG
m: diffraction order (natural number)
= 0 is a direction aiming at the center output waveguide.

The wavelength of the light that travels in this direction is called the center
wavelength. As the wavelength changes from the center wavelength, the focal point
moves at a speed of dx/d, which is called the linear dispersion of the grating where
x is a coordinate along the focal line (Figure 1.1.). The linear dispersion is obtained as
follows:

(2) where

(3)

and f is the focal length of the waveguide. In order to obtain a high wavelength
resolution, a large linear dispersion is needed. This is realized with a long focal length
f and a small pitch d.

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In an AWG, an extremely large linear dispersion can be obtained, with a high
diffraction order m simply by designing the waveguide length. This is the most
important characteristic feature of the AWG and a wavelength channel spacing of
less than 1 nm is easily obtained in AWG multi/demultiplexers.
This channel-spacing structure is called the free spectral range (FSR). Therefore, the
wavelength range available for WDM is limited to the FSR. The FSR in terms of
frequency is given by the formula below where c is the light velocity in a vacuum.
(4)
where c is the light velocity in a vacuum. Using this description a maximum number
of channels (M) can be obtained:
(5)
It can also be seen that a large focal length f is required for a higher channel count.
Accordingly, a large number of arrayed waveguides is required to receive all the
diffracted light from the input waveguide.

3.

Components and Working Principle

AWGs consist of three main functional elements: two star couplers and a set of
interconnecting arrayed waveguides, whose optical lengths, given by the product of
their effective indices (ng) and physical lengths, vary by a constant m number of
wavelengths of light at a central wavelength c from one waveguide to another
Equation (1).
The star couplers are generally based on the Rowland circle construction, where the
radius of curvature of the input and output waveguide planes is one half of the radius
of inner waveguide array planes. This arrangement ensures that the output light is
focused along the circular output interface with the change in wavelength of the
input signal.
In terms of device principle of operation, the light from the input waveguide radiates
into the first star coupler slab waveguide and excites the modes of the arrayed
waveguides at the star coupler output. After traveling through the AW, the light from
the waveguides is diffracted into the output star slab waveguide, where it
constructively converges in one focal point at the output of the star coupler. This is
accomplished because the path length difference between the arrayed waveguides
results in a relative phase delay in each waveguide, which changes with
wavelength. This results in a rotation of the field phase front in the second slab and a
translation of the location of the focal point as a function of the wavelength.

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A key for designing AWG components is given by Expression (2) which relates the
star coupler size, array waveguide spacing, and L.
Many important device physical features, such as the access and arrayed
waveguide widths and their minimum separation, will be dictated by the maximum
resolution of the device fabrication process. The arrayed waveguide spacing, da,
should be as low as possible, since any light not coupled into the array will contribute
to the device insertion losses. The output waveguide spacing, dr , will directly impact
the crosstalk of the AWG, since the output image at a given spatial location will have
exponential tails that can couple into the adjacent output waveguides, depending
on the distance. The lower bound of this parameter can be determined, based on
the desired crosstalk and receiver waveguide architecture, using a normalized
crosstalk plot like the one in Figure 1.2

Figure 1.2 Crosstalk levels and Transmitted Power

4.

Important Properties and Parameters

Focusing - obtained by choosing the length difference (L) between adjacent

arrayed waveguides equal to an integer number of wavelengths, measured
inside the array waveguides.
Dispersion refers to the dispersion angle () resulting from a phase difference
between adjacent waveguides.
FSR (free spectral range) - channel-spacing structure that limits the
wavelength range of the design.
Bandwidth - If the wavelength is changed the focal field of the AWG moves
along the receiver waveguides. The frequency response of the different
channels follows from the overlap of this field with the modal fields of the
receiver waveguides.
Channel Crosstalk - may be caused by many mechanisms but in most cases
can be controlled by a proper design of the device; It can be split into:
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5.

o Receiver Crosstalk caused by coupling between the receivers through

the exponential tails of the field distributions overlapping fields
o Truncation - due to the finite width of the array aperture. This causes
power to be lost at the input aperture, and at the output aperture the
sidelobe level of the focal field will increase.
o Mode Conversion appears if the array waveguides are not strictly
single moded and modes excited at the junctions between straight and
curved waveguides can propagate coherently through the array and
cause ghost images.
o Coupling in the Array: crosstalk can also be incurred by phase distortion
due to coupling in the input and output sections in the arrays.
o Phase Transfer Incoherence: source of crosstalk that results from
incoherence of the phased array due to imperfections in the fabrication
process.
o Background Radiation due to light scattered out of the waveguides at
junctions or rough waveguide edges
Polarization Dependence - Phased arrays are polarization independent if the
array waveguides are polarization independent, i.e., the propagation
constants for the fundamental TE- and TM-mode are equal. Waveguide
birefringence, i.e., a difference in propagation constants, will result in a shift of
the spectral responses with respect to each other, which is called the
polarization dispersion.

Applications AWG Wavelength Demultiplexers

Phased-array wavelength demultiplexers have become key components in modern

WDM systems. PHASARs can be fabricated in a single-mask planar waveguide
technology, which makes them robust and fabrication tolerant and potentially lowcost. Their main potential lies in applications with moderate crosstalk requirements
and in integration in more complex devices like multi-wavelength receivers and
transmitters.
5.1 Fabrication Platforms Silica-on-Silicon
Silica-on-silicon is the most promising set of materials for integrated optics. It has the
advantages of having a cheap fabrication process and a good compatibility with Sibased microelectronics. The connection with single mode optical fibers is also cheap
and can be done with low losses. It is good performing technology for passive
devices like the ones based on AWGs, but the research progress leads to active
components such as optical amplifiers. The only major disadvantage is the current
lack of an operating mechanism for high-speed switches (for example, an electrooptic effect).
As mentioned below, the passive components that can be fabricated using this
technology are currently leading the market. AWG Demultiplexers with crosstalk
figures that reach less than 30 dB are available for commercial use and also with up
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to 80 channels and down to 25 GHz channel spacing. Insertion losses are typically as
low as 5 dB.
5.2 Fabrication Platforms Indium Phosphide (InP)
Lasers, photodiodes and waveguides fabricated on InP operate at the optimum
transmission window of glass fiber, which enable efficient fiber communications. The
direct band-gap structure makes it a good solution for electro-optical devices. It has
an extremely low noise figure and can reach frequencies in the terahertz domain.
The disadvantages are represented by its fragility, low breakdown voltage and high
costs - more expensive than GaAs due to starting material costs and smaller wafer
size are used.
Silica-on-silicon technology is closer to maturity than Indium-Phosphide (InP)-based
semiconductor technology, but its applications are restricted to passive and lowspeed dynamic functions based on thermo-optic phase shifters.
InP is better suited to more complex functions involving light generation,
amplification, detection and a range of non-linear signal operations. InP can
integrate all these functions on a single chip. Further, InP-based devices are smaller
by one or two orders than silica-based devices which makes them very suitable for
applications in complex integrated circuits.
Their performance is lagging behind silica-on-silicon devices, but it is steadily
improving. Due to their small waveguide core, coupling to fibers is more difficult, and
hence more costly. This makes them less competitive for circuits with a restricted
functionality. For more complex circuits, InP will evolve and become a dominant
material.
5.3 Fabrication Platforms: Silicon
The use of silicon has long been established for infrared optics, such as simple lenses
and windows and long-wave detection. There is no doubt about the economic and
technical advantages of silicon and it was inevitable that silicon would be employed
wherever optic fiber is deployed. In terms of optical spectrum advantages, Silicon
has a wide transparent window that extends to infrared. It also has a high heat
conductance and the benefit of low noise, which makes it suitable for high speed
integrated circuits.
Basic components with high performance have already been demonstrated using
silicon wire waveguides. A good example of a standard commercial circuit is the
AWG. Because of material purity and precise geometric control, the silicon AWG has
very low crosstalk and excellent ITU grid registration as shown in figure 5.1. The
absolute insertion loss from glass fiber to a Si AWG is a little higher compared to a
silica AWG. However, when multiple functions are integrated monolithically and fiber
interconnects are not utilized, the Si AWG has an insertion loss advantage.

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Figure 5.1 Transmission spectrum of a silicon flat-band AWG

Some properties of the silicon waveguides are quite different from the more familiar
silica (SiO2) waveguide. In Silicon, the minimum turning radius is 250 m compared
to 5,000 um in Silica; the Si refractive index is 3.4 compared to Silicas 1.6;
5.3 Application
A multiwavelength receiver is obtained by integration of an InP AWG Demultiplexer
with a photodiode array like it is presented in Figure 5.2.

Figure 5.1 1x8 WDM receiver consisting of an AWG

integrated with 8 detector diodes
As described in the previous sections, the main advantage of InP-based devices lies
in their potential for monolithic integration of active components, even though they
exhibit higher propagation and fiber-coupling losses. Monolithic integration of an InP

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based demultiplexer allows a reduction in size, low-cost, and functionality for mass
production of more complex devices.

5.4 Basic design and BPM simulation of an InP AWG demultiplexer

In this section, a software simulation will be performed on a detailed example of an
AWG 1x8 Demultiplexer using the WDM PHASAR tool offered by Optiwave. The basic
idea behind these simulations is to break the AWG into three separate components:
an input star coupler, an array of decoupled waveguides and an output star coupler.
After that, numerical solvers like Effective Index Calculator and Beam Propagation
Method can analyze and optimize the devices performance in terms of crosstalk
level, insertion loss, channel spacing, and bandwidth
The 1x8 arrayed waveguide gratingbased demultiplexer needs to be designed in
Indium Phosphide, to operate with the central wavelength of 1550 nm. The optical
channels that need to be multiplexed are spaced by 100 GHz. The waveguide is a
ridge structure which has a 600 nm InGaAsP core, characterized by a refractive
index n1=3.4, in cladding of InP with index n2 = 3.17. Arrayed waveguides are
assumed to be 2 m wide and input and output waveguides are 3 m wide. Figure
5.3 presents a picture of the cross section (transverse plane) of the waveguide to be
used in the phasar array. The thickness of the top and bottom layer is not important to
the calculation, as they are assumed to extend to infinity.

Figure 5.3 InP cladding /InGaAsP core waveguide

In the following step after designing the multilayer structure, the software calculates
the values of the effective indexes for both core and cladding. This results are:
3.366345 for the core and 3.184621 for the cladding.
At this point waveguide design is complete and the simulation parameters are
required. A propagation length of 15000 m is selected over a mesh of 10000 m in
width. By imposing a maximum crosstalk level specification of -35 dB the minimum
waveguide separation is calculated at 3.3 microns for the I/O waveguides and at 2.4
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for the phased array. Still at this point a number of 8 output channel is imposed and
based on that and the waveguide and wafer parameters, the Minimum Length of the
Free Propagation Region is calculated to be 325.9 microns. We can now select the
100GHz channel spacing.
The key values of the design are displayed in Figure 5.4:

Figure 5.4 Key calculated parameters after imposing

the requirements
The grating design is complete (Figure 5.5) and the first simulation performed is a
check on the channel crosstalk level which is found to be at the expected levels,
below -100 dB.
The simulation of the device is computed using BPM, which is an approximation
technique for simulating the propagation of light in slowly varying optical
waveguiding structures.
Figure 5.6 displays the result of BPM. The top left quadrant displays a topographical
view of the optical field and the top right quadrant shows a 3D representation of the
same oprical field. The bottom left quadrant displays a cross-sectional view of the
effective index distribution (in red) and the field distribution (in blue) while the bottom
right quadrant displays a 3D view of the effective index.

Figure 5.5 Grating Design

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Figure 5.5 Simulation results

The simulation is repeated using the wavelength as a scan parameter. 11 iterations
are performed starting from 1.545 nm and going up to 1.555 nm. The figure below
shows the Output Power (dB) for all eight channels scanned.

Figure 5.7 Output Power vs Wavelength

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6.

Conclusion

Arrayed waveguide gratings represent one of the most important building blocks of
complex photonic integrated circuits. They can be considered as stand-alone
passive components, but their utility as building blocks to realize optical, chip-scale
multiplexers/demultiplexers, cross-connectors and router functions, as well as
different digitally tunable diode laser cavities make them a top research subject.
The highest complexities in optical integration so far have been reported in AWGbased PICs. From the three fabrication methods presented the one based on Indium
Phosphide has an important growing potential and a more complex spectrum of
functions in terms of active components design. It will lead to a dramatic reduction of
the entry costs for companies that are interested in applying this method to integrate
components. The big challenge that needs to be overcome is represented by the
scaling possibilities and in the future, it is expected to be very competitive at small
and medium production levels.
Due to the nature of the production infrastructure the start-up costs are lower
compared to advanced silicon photonics processes, while offering significantly more
functionality. In the long term it is expected that InP-Photonics and CMOS electronics
will merge in a heterogeneous integration technology, where CMOS will provide the
electronic functionality and InP the photonic functionality.

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