Silicon-Based Mode Converter and Demultiplexer for Wavelength Division Multiplexing Transmission by Using Multimode Interference Couplers

Abstract

We present a mode converter and demultiplexer structure for wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) transmission by employing multimode interference (MMI) on Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) platform. The mode converter and demultiplexer have a compact size of less than 2.7 μm × 43.7 μm. Moreover, the crosstalk between neighboring wavelength channel within C band (1530 nm to 1570 nm) can be reduced by utilizing the tapered phase shifter cascaded with MMI. The simulated results indicate that this structure has a low insertion loss of less than 1 dB, a low crosstalk of better than ?15 dB and a relatively high fabrication tolerance of ~10 nm. Such structure may find many potential applications in silicon photonic integrated devices.