Miniaturized Fiber Bragg Grating Interrogator based on an Arrayed Waveguide Grating in SOI platform

Grating couplers are widely used optical interfaces in integrated photonics, especially on the Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) platform. Their design has been optimized for coupling light between a Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) and a single-mode fiber, a μlens for free space transport, or even a second PIC in the same SOI platform. In this work, we co-design matching pairs of grating-couplers on distinct SOI and InP photonic platforms for optimized PIC-to-PIC coupling. By matching the scattering strengths of the two grating-couplers, we show that a PIC-to-PIC insertion loss of 3dB can be achieved. We also investigate how the design parameters impact the coupling efficiency and the bandwidth, ending up with a tolerance analysis. The proposed coupling approach between two different waveguide materials has prospective applications for the hybrid-integration of SOI and InP photonic platforms for communication technologies.

Dynamic strain signals are important for many structural monitoring applications, but the high-speed interrogation of strain sensors based on fibre Bragg gratings (FBGs) remains a challenge. Arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) interrogation schemes have been proposed, and by using modelling and validation experiments several design considerations are investigated and their relationship to system performance indicators determined. The Bragg grating length has an impact on the ability of the grating to ‘observe’ the transient strain field, while the spectral widths of both the FBG and AWG influence the recovered strain resolution. The system performance was examined for both high frequency noise as well as the long-term drifts over an hour, with a strain resolution of 1.4 µε observed and drift of less than 3.1 µε h−1. The noise dependence on the relative overlap of the AWG and FBG spectra was found to be significant and the inclusion of a semiconductor optical amplifier to boost light intensity at the detectors was found to significantly improve performance with an improvement in the signal-to-noise ratio up to 200%.

SOI-based arrayed waveguide grating with extended dynamic range for fiber Bragg grating interrogator

High-speed fiber Bragg grating (FBG) interrogation based on arrayed waveguide gratings (AWGs) enables parallel, scan-free interrogation but is fundamentally limited by interrogation discontinuities when the FBG spectrum traverses adjacent AWG channels. This issue originates from insufficient spectral overlap at channel boundaries and leads to wavelength jumps during large or rapid spectral excursions. We report a compact AWG-based FBG interrogator that overcomes this limitation through a hardware-software co-design strategy. Contrary to conventional AWG designs that prioritize low crosstalk for optical communications, we deliberately utilize a high-crosstalk AWG to introduce substantial inter-channel spectral overlap, thereby ensuring a smooth and monotonic ratiometric response across channel boundaries. To further eliminate residual numerical discontinuities, a real-time wavelength jump suppression algorithm (WJSA) is developed to detect channel-switching events and apply adaptive reference-wavelength correction. Experimental results demonstrate a high interrogation linearity (R2=0.9992), even for narrowband FBGs with a bandwidth of 0.20 nm. The interrogator supports a sampling rate of up to 500 kS/s, enabling accurate dynamic strain measurements up to 50 kHz and resolving transient impact responses with microsecond-level temporal resolution. The proposed approach addresses a key limitation in AWG-based FBG interrogation and provides a scalable and cost-effective solution for high-speed structural health monitoring.

Multifiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor arrays are being used in the health monitoring of aerospace structures and civil engineering works, as well as the environment monitoring. However, the field interrogations of multi FBG sensors are still a big challenge due to the lack of portable, robust, high performance multi sensor interrogation devices. We have found that by thermally scanning an arrayed waveguide gratings (AWG) based demultiplexer, a device deployed in the telecommunication networks, multi FBG sensors can be precisely monitored simultaneously. The measurement resolution of this technique can be better than one picometer (equivalent to 0.1degC for temperature sensing) and the measurement time can be as short as milliseconds. Owning to the small size and ruggedness of AWG, it is potentially feasible to fabricate an all solid (no moving parts), palm size, robust and high-resolution interrogator for multi FBG sensor applications

Optoelectronic integration technologies based on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) can bring revolutionary change to on-chip arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) demodulation systems. In this study, we present several ultrasmall 1 x N AWGs for an SOI-based AWG demodulation integration microsystem of different scales. The core sizes of the fabricated AWGs are smaller than 400 x 600 μm 2 . Experimental results match the simulation results, indicating that AWGs have a good transmission spectrum of low crosstalk below -20 dB and low insertion loss below -6.5 dB. The fabricated AWGs can be perfectly applied to improve the integration level and performance of the SOI-based AWG demodulation integration microsystem.

A planar lightwave circuit-based multi-channel arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) is used as a critical part of the fiber Bragg grating (FBG) interrogation unit and designed to be integrated into the fiber grating sensing system. We designed and fabricated a high-performance, 40 channels AWG in the device, enabling whole C-band wavelength demodulation while maintaining high-measurement resolution. The AWG was designed to have 100-GHz channel spacing; the channel crosstalk was measured to be −45 dB. An AWG-based FBG interrogation system was built to analyze the characteristics of our unit. The testing result shows that our system has the capability of demodulating wavelength from 1526.438 to 1563.863 nm with wavelength accuracy within ±10 pm; the wavelength resolution is measured to be 1 pm. Our testing result confirms that an AWG-based FBG interrogator is an excellent choice for FBG sensing systems.

With the increasing demand for information, integrated silicon photonics technology has been highly valued. Among them, silicon on insulator (SOI) has advantages of low cost, process maturity, and IC technology compatible, making it to be one of the most competitive integrated optoelectronic platforms. However, due to its highly polarization-dependent performance, polarization-selective devices are essential on SOI platform. In this paper, we analyze the critical guiding condition of SOI waveguide as well as the hybrid plasmonic waveguide (HPW). Based on the different critical guiding condition for both polarizations, we propose several polarization-selective devices on SOI platform, including polarizer, polarization beam splitter (PBS) and polarization rotator. In this paper, an ultracompact and broadband TE-pass polarizer based on HPW is proposed. In addition, an asymmetrical coupling based polarization beam splitter is designed. Simulation results show that the designed devices have excellent optical properties, and the sizes of the devices achieve a great breakthrough.

A direct epitaxy of III-V nanowires with InGaAs/InP multiple quantum wells on v-shaped trenches patterned silicon on insulator (SOI) substrates was realized by combining the standard semiconductor fabrication process with the aspect ratio trapping growth technique. Silicon thickness as well as the width and gap of each nanowire were carefully designed to accommodate essential optical properties and appropriate growth conditions. The III-V element ingredient, crystalline quality, and surface topography of the grown nanowires were characterized by X-ray diffraction spectroscopy, photoluminescence, and scanning electron microscope. Geometrical details and chemical information of multiple quantum wells were revealed by transmission electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy. Numerical simulations confirmed that the optical guided mode supported by one single nanowire was able to propagate 50 μm with ∼30% optical loss. This proposed integration scheme opens up an alternative pathway for future photonic integrations of III-V devices on the SOI platform at nanoscale.

Multistage WDM access architecture employing cascaded AWGs

Monolithic integration of an InP-based O-band 4-channel arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) to a uni-traveling carrier photodiode (UTC-PD) array is realized by the selective area growth (SAG) technique. The passive-active buttjoint design is introduced and experimentally proved to ensure both good compatibility between the PD fabrication process and the SAG technique, and high photodiode quantum efficiency under the complex butt-joint geometry. An extended coupling layer is adopted between the AWG output waveguides and the PD mesa. The extended coupling layer length, the regrowth boundary edge position and the AWG etching edge position relative to the heterogeneous butt-joint boundary, and the refractive indices of the PD collector and coupling layer are optically simulated and optimized by a finite-difference time-domain method. It is found that the extended coupling layer, compared with the un-extended situation, ensures a good matched optical field from AWG to PD and could reduce nearly 30% quantum efficiency loss when connecting seamlessly to the regrown InP AWG top cladding layer. A stable high efficiency around 80% is maintained within an extended layer length from 7.5 m to 15.0 m. The regrowth boundary edge into the coupling region will cause a drastic efficiency oscillation up to 20% period with the increase of distance. The efficiency drop is also attributed to the light scattering at the regrowth boundary edge, caused by the optical field mismatch, while the oscillation comes from the alternative light power concentration between the coupling layer and the core layer, for the light scattering is only obvious when the light power is well concentrated in the coupling layer. The AWG etching edge position deviation from the butt-joint boundary, however, exerts little influence on the PD quantum efficiency, which is believed not to bring obvious coupling loss during device fabrication. The higher UTC-PD collector refractive index is proved to be crucial for further better optical coupling from the coupling layer to the PD, with quantum efficiency rapidly increasing from around 0.1 to 0.8 when the index is increased from 3.20 to 3.42. By comparison, the efficiency is little affected by the coupling layer refractive index from 3.34 to 3.42.All things considered, we select a 10 m extended coupling layer, the refractive indices of both PD collector and the coupling layer to be 3.42, and align both the regrowth boundary edge and the AWG etching edge to the heterogeneous butt-joint boundary, and a PD quantum efficiency of 80% is expected. Owing to the extended coupling layer at the butt-joint, the SAG technique facilitates the PD fabrication process. The overgrown AWG top cladding layer ridge stretches out 4.67 m toward the PD, but not over the mesa yet, hence has little influence on the PD fabrication accuracy. The monolithic chip presents a uniform photodiode quantum efficiency of 76%, which accords well with theoretical value and confirms the butt-joint design. Central wavelengths for the four channels are 1347.0 nm, 1325.0 nm, 1308.0 nm, and 1286.5 nm, respectively. The low crosstalk level (below -22 dB) also indicates a good de-multiplexer performance.

A 25-channel 200 GHz arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) based on Si nanowire waveguides is designed, simulated and fabricated. Transfer function method is used in the simulation and error analysis of AWG with width fluctuations. The 25-channel 200 GHz AWG exhibits central channel insertion loss of 6.7 dB, crosstalk of −13 dB, and central wavelength of 1 560.55 nm. The error analysis can explain the experimental results of 25-channel 200 GHz AWG well. By using deep ultraviolet lithography (DUV) and inductively coupled plasma etching (ICP) technologies, the devices are fabricated on silicon- on-insulator (SOI) substrate.

Arrayed waveguide gratings (AWG) are widely used as wavelength division multiplexers (MUX) and demultiplexers (DEMUX) in optical networks. Here we propose and demonstrate that conventional AWGs can also be used as integrated spectral filters to realize a Fast Fourier transform (FFT) and its inverse form (IFFT). More specifically, we point out that the wavelength selection conditions of AWGs when used as wavelength MUX/DEMUX also enable them to perform FFT/IFFT functions. Therefore, previous research on AWGs can now be applied to optical FFT/IFFT circuit design. Compared with other FFT/IFFT optical circuits, AWGs have less structural complexity, especially for a large number of inputs and outputs. As an important application, AWGs can be used in optical OFDM systems. We propose an all-optical OFDM system with AWGs and demonstrate the simulation results. Overall, the AWG provides a feasible solution for all-optical OFDM systems, especially with a large number of optical subcarriers.

We propose a modified arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) demultiplexer formed by an array of parallel ridge waveguides of equal length fabricated in silicon-on-insulator (SOI). Each waveguide contains two sections with different widths. The lengths of the two sections are modified from a waveguide to the adjacent waveguide, resulting in a wavelength dispersive phase array. With an appropriate demultiplexer output geometry, the light is focused in the output slab waveguide combiner. The focal position is wavelength dependent in the transverse direction, so that the optical signal is demultiplexed into separated output channels corresponding to different spectral bands. This device does not require bending waveguide sections which are essential in a conventional AWG demultiplexer, yielding very compact devices with potentially low loss. Numerical simulations have been carried out to evaluate the influence of waveguide parameters such as lengths and widths of different waveguide sections on demultiplexer performance.

A conventional Arrayed Waveguide Grating (AWG) has been modified, without output receiver waveguides, for nonconventional applications such as Astrophotonics and spectroscopy sensing where the input signal can have information over the entire band and a continuum of light/spectrum. The material system chosen for the AWG design is siliconnitride/ SiO 2 /Si (Si 3 N 4 -SiO 2 -Si) for its relatively high refractive index, which for a given channel spacing allowing a more compact device than Silicon-on-Silica. Further, CMOS compatibility and the presence of high non-liner optical coefficient would be an added advantage to design and fabricate densely integrated photonic sub-systems, such as calibration source and AWG, for astrophotonics and spectroscopy. The proposed AWG utilizes a flat image plane optimized for minimal aberration. An analytical calculation, based on Gaussian beam approximation, was used to determine the optimal flat plane position where the non-uniformity in 1/e electric field widths is minimal. This plane can be used as the dicing plane to re-image the entire output of the AWG onto a detector array to sample the entire spectrum. Tailored AWG, with flat image-plane, designed to resolve 48 spectral channels with 0.4nm (50GHz) resolution and adjacent channel cross-talk level within a 0.2nm window (ITU-grid) ~ -28dB. Calculated insertion loss non-uniformity is close to 3dB. The foot-print of high index contrast (Δn=23%) IPS is ~ 12x8.5 mm 2 . The modelled mean spectral resolving power, R, at the flat image-plane is ~ 7,600. The design principle could be utilised for devices using other material systems with different parameters.