Browse > Article
http://dx.doi.org/10.3807/JOSK.2016.20.2.291

Comparative Study of Uniform and Nonuniform Grating Couplers for Optimized Fiber Coupling to Silicon Waveguides  

Lee, Moon Hyeok (Department of Physics, Inha University)
Jo, Jae Young (Department of Physics, Inha University)
Kim, Dong Wook (Department of Physics, Inha University)
Kim, Yudeuk (Department of Physics, Inha University)
Kim, Kyong Hon (Department of Physics, Inha University)
Publication Information
Journal of the Optical Society of Korea / v.20, no.2, 2016 , pp. 291-299 More about this Journal
Abstract
We have investigated the ultimate limits of nonuniform grating couplers (NGCs) for optimized fiber coupling to silicon waveguides, compared to uniform grating couplers (UGCs). Simple grating coupler schemes, which can be fabricated in etching steps of the conventional complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers without forming any additional overlay structure, have been simulated numerically and demonstrated experimentally. Optimum values of the grating period, fill factor, and groove number for ultimate coupling efficiency of the NGCs are determined from finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation, and confirmed with experimentally demonstrated devices by comparison to those for the UGCs. Our simulated results indicate that maximum coupling efficiency of NGCs is possible when the minimum pattern size is below 50 nm, but the experimental value for the maximum coupling efficiency is limited by the attainable fabrication tolerance in a practical device process.
Keywords
Grating couplers; Integrated optics devices;
Citations & Related Records
Times Cited By KSCI : 1  (Citation Analysis)
연도 인용수 순위
1 Y. Tang, Z. Wang, L. Wosinski, U. Westergren, and S. He, “Highly efficient nonuniform grating coupler for silicon-on-insulator nanophotonic circuits,” Opt. Lett. 35, 1290-1292 (2010).   DOI
2 A. Mekis, S. Gloeckner, G. Masini, A. Narasimha, S. Sahni, and P. D. Dobbelaere, "A grating-coupler-enabled CMOS photonics platform," IEEE J. Select. Topics Quantum Electron. 7, 597-608 (2011).
3 J. S. Orcutt, A. Khilo, C. W. Holzwarth, M. A. Popović, H. Li, J. Sun, T. Bonifield, R. Hollingsworth, F. X. Kärtner, H. I. Smith, V. Stojanović, and R. J. Ram, “Nanophotonic integration in state-of-the-art CMOS foundries,” Opt. Express 19, 2335-2346 (2011).   DOI
4 D. Taillaert, F. V. Laere, M. Ayre, W. Bogaerts, D. Van Thourhout, P. Bienstman, and R. Baets, “Grating couplers for coupling between optical fibers and nanophotonic waveguides,” Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 45, 6071-6077 (2006).   DOI
5 D. Taillaert, P. Bienstman, and R. Baets, “Compact efficient broad band grating coupler for silicon-on-insulator waveguides,” Opt. Lett. 29, 2749-2751 (2004).   DOI
6 C. Li, H. Zhang, M. Yu, and G. Q. Lo, “CMOS-compatible high efficiency double-etched apodized waveguide grating coupler,” Opt. Express 21, 7868-7874 (2013).   DOI
7 L. He, Y. Liu, C. Galland, A. E. Lim, G. Lo, T. Baehr-Jones, and M. Hochberg, “A high-efficiency nonuniform grating coupler realized with 248-nm optical lithography,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 25, 1358-1361 (2013).   DOI
8 W. S. Zaoui, A. Kunze, W. Vogel, M. Berroth, J. Butschke, F. Letzkus, and J. Burghartz, “Bridging the gap between optical fibers and silicon photonic integrated circuits,” Opt. Express 22, 1277-1286 (2014).   DOI
9 X. Chen, C. Li, C. K. Y. Fung, S. M. G. Lo, and H. K. Tsang, “Apodized waveguide grating couplers for efficient coupling to optical fibers,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 22, 1156-1158 (2010).   DOI
10 A. Bozzola, L. Carroll, D. Gerace, I. Cristiani, and L. C. Andreani, “Optimising apodized grating couplers in a pure SOI platform to -0.5 dB coupling efficiency,” Opt. Express 23, 16289-16304 (2015).   DOI
11 D. Vermeulen, S. Selvaraja, P. Verheyen, G. Lepage, W. Bogaerts, P. Absil, D. Van Thourhout, and G. Roelkens, “High-efficiency fiber-to-chip grating couplers realized using an advanced CMOS-compatible silicon-on-insulator platform,” Opt. Express 18, 18278-18283 (2010).   DOI
12 A. Karimi, F. Emami, and N. Nozhat, “The effects of various apodization functions on the filtering characteristics of the grating-assisted SOI strip waveguides,” J. Opt. Soc. Korea 18, 101-109 (2014).   DOI
13 R. Waldhausl, B. Schnabel, P. Dannberg, E. B. Kley, A. Brauer, and W. Karthe, “Efficient coupling into polymer waveguides by gratings,” Appl. Opt. 36, 9383-9390 (1997).   DOI
14 D. Taillaert, W. Bogaerts, P. Bienstman, T. F. Krauss, P. V. Daele, I. Moerman, S. Verstuyft, K. D. Mesel, and R. Baets, “An out-of-plane grating coupler for efficienct butt-coupling between compact planar waveguides and single-mode fibers,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 38, 949-955 (2002).   DOI