Reconfigurable spot size converter for the silicon photonics integrated circuit

Spot size converter (SSC) plays a role of paramount importance in the silicon photonics integrated circuit. In this article, we report the design of a reconfigurable spot size converter used in the hybrid integration of a DFB laser diode with a silicon photonic waveguide. Our SSC consists of subwavelength gratings and thermal phase shifters. Four subwavelength grating tips are used to improve horizontal misalignment tolerance. Meanwhile, the phase mismatch between two input waveguides is compensated by phase shifters to minimize insertion losses. Our simulated result has yielded a minimum insertion loss of 0.63 dB and an improvement of the horizontal misalignment from ±0.65 µm to ±1.69 µm for 1 dB excess insertion loss at the wavelength of 1310 nm. The phase shifters are designed to compensate any phase error in both the fabrication and bonding processes, which provides a completely new edge-coupling strategy for the silicon photonics integrated circuit.