Broadband high-efficiency triple-tip spot size converter for edge coupling with improved polarization insensitivity

Abstract

Fiber-to-chip couplers are an essential part of the interfaces to integrated photonic devices, and high coupling efficiency over a broad wavelength range is preferred for most applications. Furthermore, couplers with low polarization dependence are also of great practical significance. While tapered waveguide couplers have been applied to overcome the mode mismatch between waveguides and fibers, the inherent geometric asymmetry of high-index-contrast waveguides, especially for those with a thick core layer, leads to polarization dependence in their performance. Here a triple-tip spot size converter as an edge coupler is proposed to improve the polarization insensitivity and coupling efficiency over a broadband range for either thick or thin waveguides. For both TE and TM polarization, it is shown that our design can have below 1 dB coupling loss over a 600 nm window around 1550 nm wavelength for Si3N4 waveguides of typical core thicknesses. Meanwhile, this kind of coupler also shows better fabrication and assembly tolerance than the traditional single-tip spot size converter (inverse taper coupler). Our proposed device can be easily fabricated in simple fabrication processes compared to other designs and have good compatibility with the standard complementary metal-oxide–semiconductor processes.