In our work an optical bus-coupler is proposed, which enables easy bidirectional connection between two waveguides without interrupting the bus using a core-to-core coupling principle. With bended waveguides the coupling ratio can be tuned by adjusting the overlap area of the two cores. In order to ensure large overlap areas at short coupling lengths, the waveguides have rectangular cross sections. To examine the feasibility of this coupling concept a simulation was performed, which is presented in this paper. Due to multimode waveguides, used in short range data communication, a non-sequential ray tracing simulation is reasonable.

Simulations revealed that the bending of the waveguide causes a redistribution of the energy within the core. Small radii push the main energy to the outer region of the core increasing the coupling efficiency. On the other hand, at excessive lowered bend radii additional losses occur (due to a coupling into the cladding), which is why an optimum has to be found. Based on the simulation results it is possible to derive requirements and design rules for the coupling element.

Date Published: 27 April 2016
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 9889, Optical Modelling and Design IV, 988902 (27 April 2016); doi: 10.1117/12.2225447

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9889:
Optical Modelling and Design IV
Frank Wyrowski; John T. Sheridan; Youri Meuret, Editor(s)