Dewanjee 2014

WH4.
5 (Contributed)
4:30 PM - 4:45 PM
A Low-loss, Compact, Broadband, Polarization Insensitive

Edge Coupler for Silicon Photonics
1
Arnab Dewanjee, 1Jan Niklas Caspers, 2Daniel F. V. James, 1Mo Mojahedi
1
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, 2Dpeartment of Physics
University of Toronto, 40 King’s College Road, Ontario-M5S3G4, Canada
Author email: arnab.dewanjee@mail.utoronto.ca
Abstract: We present the design of a broadband, compact, and low loss two level inverse taper
edge coupler for silicon photonics. The polarization maintaining taper has less than 1 dB coupling
loss from fiber to silicon waveguide and efficiently couples to both TE and TM polarizations.
1. Introduction
Current coupler techniques in silicon photonics are based on two different approaches. One example is an out-of
plane grating coupler which typically reaches coupling efficiencies of about -1 dB [1]. Alternatively, an in plane
coupling can be achieved by a number of tapering techniques. The out-of plane grating couplers typically have a
limited bandwidth, occupy large area on the chip (10×300 µm2), and are sensitive to misalignment. Additionally, the
majority of them only couple one polarization to the silicon photonic circuits, thus requiring polarization
maintaining fibers to operate. Some of these drawbacks can be overcome using an inverse tapered edge coupler. In
such couplers a single mode Si waveguide width is gradually narrowed to about 100 nm at the feed point. At this
narrow width the waveguide mode is driven (close) to the cut-off, which reduces its effective index and increases the
mode size significantly [2]. The increased mode size allows for better coupling to the mode of a single mode fiber.
Inverse tapers with high coupling efficiencies have been demonstrated but are rather long [2-4] and require very
small feature sizes for high performance operation. Moreover, a reproducible fabrication process for a 100 nm wide
sharp taper tip is challenging, but is required for low coupling loss from the fiber to chip below 2 dB. In this work
we propose a 2 layer inverse silicon taper with a bottom taper layer of a 150 nm height partial etched silicon on a
silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer. This layer starts off with a square cross-section to facilitate a polarization
independent coupling. A second layer is introduced (70 nm height on top of the bottom layer) to bring the taper to
the standard height of 220 nm of a single mode Si waveguide. Both layers gradually widen to match the taper cross
section at the end to the Si waveguide. The total length of the taper is only 30 μm. The simulation results of the
proposed taper show improved coupling for both TE and TM polarizations with a significant decrease in device
length as compared to literature and standard inverse tapers [2-3]. The first layer height of a 150 nm is a standard
partial etch, available in most silicon photonics foundries. Thus in contrast to previous designs [2-3] our device does
not require any additional process step, but increases performance solely by using existing foundry fabrication steps.
a) a) c)
(μm)
b)
Figure: 1. a) 3D schematics of the proposed inverse taper design. The whole structure is embedded in a SiO2 cladding layer. For better visibility,
the (top) oxide layer is made transparent. b) Top view of the proposed inverse taper, the light green corresponds to the partially etched 150 nm
thick silicon layer, while the orange topped layer is the full thickness (220 nm) layer. c) Effective mode index (neff) of a silicon waveguide as a
function of waveguide width for both polarizations at 150 nm and 220 nm height.
978-1-4577-1504-4/14/$26.00 ©2014 IEEE 560

The proposed inverse taper is shown as a 3D schematic in Fig. 1-a. The two different layer thicknesses are used to
improve the coupling efficiency and allow for a smaller and square waveguide cross section at the position of
coupling from the fiber. The top view, where a number of parameters are defined is shown in Fig. 1-b. The orange
topped layer corresponds to the thicker standard height of 220 nm, while the light green is the shallow etched (150
nm height) Si region. For a 30 μm total length (L1Taper+L2Taper as showed in figure 1-b) the optimum values of
L1Taper and WTrans were found to be 21 μm (L2Taper = 9 μm ) and 350 nm, respectively. The taper ends with a cross-
section of 220 nm height and 450 nm width which are similar to the dimensions of a rectangular single mode Si
waveguide.
2. Results and Discussion
As evident from figure 1-c, at the vicinity of the width of 150 nm for 150 nm height, the neff for both TE and TM
lowest order modes of the waveguide are almost equal (exactly equal for same width and height). The neff value is
close to 1.46 which is the value for the cladding (SiO2) refractive index. As a result, for the proposed taper the mode
is near the cut-off at the taper-tip, hence larger in size and results in an increased overlap with the incoming focused
fiber mode. Using a finite difference time domain (FDTD) electromagnetic simulation software (Lumerical FDTD),
we simulated the total loss of the proposed taper from a single mode fiber source with a 5 μm mode field diameter at
the feed point to a single mode silicon waveguide. Figure 2-a shows a total loss of ~ 1 dB at 1.55 μm wavelength for
a TE polarization through the proposed 30 μm long 2-layer inverse taper as compared to the 2 dB loss of a 300 μm
long standard commercial single etch inverse taper [4]. The loss stays under 1.6 dB in a broadband wavelength
window of 1.4 μm to 1.7 μm. The loss can be minimized to ~ 0.97 dB by increasing the taper length up to 40 μm
(shown in figure 2-a). Additionally, the equal effective index for both polarizations due to a square cross section at
the feed point makes this device insensitive to the input polarization. This feature is expected to be tolerant to
fabrication imperfections as the neff for both polarizations stay close to 1.46 approximately up to a width of 180 nm
for the taper tip (figure 1-c). The total loss of the proposed device for the TM polarization is close in value to the TE
case (2.2 dB at 1.55 μm wavelength for 30 μm taper length). Power coupling to the cross polarized mode (TE →
TM or TM → TE) along the taper structure is also minimized in this design which was a major problem in [2].
Figure 2-b shows the extinction between the power coupled to the launched mode and the cross polarized mode in
the waveguide section at the end of the proposed taper for both types of input polarizations (TE and TM) as a
function of wavelength. The extinction ratio stays above 18 dB in the spectral region of interest (1.4 – 1.7 μm) for a
taper length of 30 μm.
Figure: 2. a) Total loss through the proposed inverse taper coupler for TE polarization for different taper lengths. b) Extinction ratio between the
power coupled to the launched mode and the cross polarized mode in the single mode Si waveguide section at the end of the proposed coupler (30
μm taper length).
3. Conclusion
The design of a two layer broadband, compact inverse taper edge coupler has been proposed. The simulation results
show a ~1 dB loss for a 30 μm long coupler which is a significant decrease in the device length as compared to the 2
dB loss of a commercial inverse taper coupler [4]. Loss can be minimized to less than 1 dB by increasing the taper
length to 40 μm. The proposed taper has an improved coupling for both input polarizations individually while
suppressing coupling to cross polarized mode through the taper section. Another very important aspect of this design
is that the layer heights of the taper are 150 nm and 220 nm and minimum width is 150 nm both of which are
compatible to foundry silicon photonics fabrication processes unlike previous designs [3]. We currently are in the
process of fabricating and measuring the device.
4. Reference
[1] Wissem Sfar Zaoui, Andreas Kunze, Wolfgang Vogel, Manfred Berroth, Jörg Butschke, Florian Letzkus, and Joachim Burghartz, “Bridging the gap between optical fibers and silicon
photonic integrated circuits,” Optics express, Vol 22, Issue 2, pp (1277-1286), 2014.
[2] V. R. Almeida, R. R. Panepucci, and M. Lipson, “Nanotaper for compact mode conversion,” Opt. Lett. 28, 1302–1304 (2003).
[3] T. Shoji, T. Tsuchizawa, T. Watanabe, K. Yamada, and H. Morita, “Low loss mode size converter from 0.3 μm square Si wire waveguides to singlemode fibres,” Electronics Letters, Col. 38,
Issue 25.
[4] OpSIS-IME OI50 Process – Performance Summary, October 2013.
978-1-4577-1504-4/14/$26.00 ©2014 IEEE 561

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WH4.

A Low-loss, Compact, Broadband, Polarization Insensitive

978-1-4577-1504-4/14/$26.00 ©2014 IEEE 560

978-1-4577-1504-4/14/$26.00 ©2014 IEEE 561

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