Polymer multimode waveguide bend based on a multilayered Eaton lens

Reducing the bending radius of low-index-contrast waveguides is essential in reducing the size of the integrated optical components. A polymeric multimode waveguide bend is presented based on the Eaton lens. Ray-tracing calculations are utilized to truncate the Eaton lens in order to improve the performance of the bend. The truncation of the lens decreases the footprint of the bend as well. A designed waveguide bend with a radius of 18.4 μm is implemented by a concentric cylindrical multilayer structure. Average bend losses of 0.69 and 0.87 dB are achieved for the TM₀ and TM₁ modes, respectively, in the C-band of optical communication. The bend loss is lower than 1 dB in a bandwidth of 1520-1675 nm for both modes.