We review our recent work on chirped waveguide gratings for efficient coupling between standard single mode optical fibers and silicon photonic wire waveguides. The use of a linear chirp in grating period reduces the second order Bragg reflection from the waveguide gratings and increases the coupling efficiency for perfectly vertical optical fibers. Measurement results obtained from devices fabricated using deep UV lithography yielded coupling efficiencies of over 34%. Techniques to further improve the coupling efficiency will be discussed. The use of chirped waveguide gratings for low cost photonic packaging and the application of waveguide gratings for splitting/combining light will also be presented.

Date Published: 10 February 2009
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 7219, Optoelectronic Integrated Circuits XI, 721903 (10 February 2009); doi: 10.1117/12.810005

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7219:
Optoelectronic Integrated Circuits XI
Louay A. Eldada; El-Hang Lee, Editor(s)