Reduction of non-uniformity for a 16  ×  16 arrayed waveguide grating router based on silica waveguides

Here, a newly designed 16×16 cyclic arrayed waveguide grating router, capable of achieving loss uniformity across the whole free spectral range (FSR), is fabricated and experimentally demonstrated. This device is based on commonly used silica waveguides, which are compatible with basic planar lightwave circuit technology. The design, simulation, and experimental verification of the proposed method are presented, with the experimental results showing that the loss non-uniformity of FSR reduced from 2.70 to 1.05 dB using this new design. This design brings in only tiny changes of mask and real estate.