Ultracompact and ultralow-loss S-bends with easy fabrication by numerical optimization

Opt Lett. 2022 May 15;47(10):2434-2437. doi: 10.1364/OL.455461.

Abstract

Ultra-longitudinal-compact S-bends with flexible latitudinal distances (d) are proposed and experimentally demonstrated with ultralow loss and fabrication-friendly structures by three steps based on numerical optimization. During the first step (curve optimization), insertion losses (ILs) of S-bends are significantly reduced by optimizing transition curves based on Bézier curves. During the second step (shape optimization), the ILs are further minimized by varying the widths of S-bends to increase optical confinement. In the third step (curvature optimization), considering ease of fabrication, an optimization of curvature radius is used to ensure that all feature sizes for the S-bends are larger than 200 nm. Simulation results show that for S-bends with footprints of 2.5× d μm2, the ILs are less than (0.19, 0.045, 0.18, 0.27) dB in a wavelength range of 1400-1700 nm when d is set as (3, 6, 9, 12) μm, respectively. Then, the S-bends of 2.5× 3 μm2 and 2.5× 12 μm2 are fabricated on a commercial 220-nm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform. Experimental results show that the ILs of both are less than 0.16 dB in a wavelength range of 1420-1630 nm. The lowest ILs are 0.074 dB and 0.070 dB, respectively. Moreover, in addition to the ultralow ILs and ease of fabrication, our design is flexible for designing S-bends with a flexible value of d, which makes our approach practical in large-scale photonic integrated circuits.

MeSH terms

  • Equipment Design
  • Equipment Failure Analysis
  • Refractometry*
  • Silicon / chemistry
  • Surface Plasmon Resonance*

Substances

  • Silicon