Compact Inversely-Designed Vertical Coupler with Bottom Reflector for Sub-Decibel Fiber-to-Chip Coupling on Silicon-on-Insulator Platform

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Huang, Shiang-Yu, Barz, Stefanie
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Huang, Shiang-Yu
Barz, Stefanie
author_facet Huang, Shiang-Yu
Barz, Stefanie
contents Inverse design via topology optimization has led to innovations in integrated photonics and offers a promising way for designing high-efficiency on-chip couplers with a minimal footprint. In this work, we exploit topology optimization to design a compact vertical coupler incorporating a bottom reflector, which achieves sub-decibel coupling efficiency on the 220-nm silicon-on-insulator platform. The final design of the vertical coupler yields a predicted coupling efficiency of -0.35 dB at the wavelength of 1550 nm with a footprint of 14 μm x 14 μm, which is considerably smaller than conventional grating couplers. Its topology-optimized geometry can be realized by applying one full etch and one 70-nm shallow-etch process and the fabricability is also guaranteed by a minimum feature size around 150 nm. The proposed vertical coupler can further miniaturize photonic integrated circuits and enable highly-efficient networks between optical fibers and other photonic devices.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2409_10660
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Compact Inversely-Designed Vertical Coupler with Bottom Reflector for Sub-Decibel Fiber-to-Chip Coupling on Silicon-on-Insulator Platform
Huang, Shiang-Yu
Barz, Stefanie
Optics
Applied Physics
Inverse design via topology optimization has led to innovations in integrated photonics and offers a promising way for designing high-efficiency on-chip couplers with a minimal footprint. In this work, we exploit topology optimization to design a compact vertical coupler incorporating a bottom reflector, which achieves sub-decibel coupling efficiency on the 220-nm silicon-on-insulator platform. The final design of the vertical coupler yields a predicted coupling efficiency of -0.35 dB at the wavelength of 1550 nm with a footprint of 14 μm x 14 μm, which is considerably smaller than conventional grating couplers. Its topology-optimized geometry can be realized by applying one full etch and one 70-nm shallow-etch process and the fabricability is also guaranteed by a minimum feature size around 150 nm. The proposed vertical coupler can further miniaturize photonic integrated circuits and enable highly-efficient networks between optical fibers and other photonic devices.
title Compact Inversely-Designed Vertical Coupler with Bottom Reflector for Sub-Decibel Fiber-to-Chip Coupling on Silicon-on-Insulator Platform
topic Optics
Applied Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.10660