Study of WDM polymer planar curved waveguide couplers

Abstract

A wavelength division multiplexer based on curved polymer planar waveguide is proposed. According to the coupled mode theory and the waveguide structure, the performance of the curved waveguide coupler (CWC) is analyzed. The results show that CWC can accommodate wider multiplexing bandwidth than parallel straight waveguide coupler (SWC) due to the compensation effect of the effective coupling length. The two variables, curvature radius and minimum spacing, increase the design flexibility of the waveguide device. A 4-channel wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) system based on CWC is designed. The deviation of the center wavelength, due to the errors of curvature radius and minimum spacing during fabrication process, is investigated. The smaller the curvature radius and the minimum spacing are, the larger the central wavelength deviation caused by the error of the curvature radius and the minimum spacing is, which provides some useful theoretical basis for the design and the fabrication of polymer waveguide devices.