Open AccessHigh-efficiency vertical fibre-to-polymer waveguide coupling scheme for scalable polymer photonic circuits
Author(s) -
Ajit Kumar,
Siddharth Nambiar,
Rakshitha Kallega,
Praveen Ranganath,
Priya Ea,
Shankar Kumar Selvaraja
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.412266
Subject(s) - materials science , photonic integrated circuit , grating , optoelectronics , waveguide , electronic circuit , photonics , photonic crystal , optics , silicon photonics , broadband , coupling (piping) , bandwidth (computing) , telecommunications , computer science , physics , quantum mechanics , metallurgy
Polymer photonic circuits offer a versatile platform for various applications, including communication, sensing and optical signal processing. Though polymers offer broadband, linear and nonlinear optical properties, the coupling between an optical fibre and a polymer waveguide has been a challenge. In this work, we propose and demonstrate a wafer-scale vertical coupling scheme for polymer waveguides. The scheme uses a silicon nitride grating coupler with an inverse taper to couple between an optical fibre and a SU8 polymer waveguide. We demonstrate a maximum coupling efficiency of -3.55 dB in the C-band and -2.92 dB in the L-band with a 3-dB bandwidth of 74 and 80 nm, respectively. A detailed design and simulation, fabrication, and characterisation results are presented. The scheme demonstrates a scalable and efficient surface grating approach for polymer photonic integrated circuits.