Power distribution in a planar-waveguide-based broadcast star network

Abstract

A two-dimensional planar optical waveguide has been proposed as a substitute for a star coupler in a semiconductor-wafer-scale network in order to eliminate the need for a conventional waveguide coupler as well as the precision alignments between optical sources, waveguides, and photodetectors. The received optical power in the planar broadcast network is shown to scale inversely with the number of stations on the network, just as for the case of a conventional star-coupler-based network. A network-size-independent power penalty of at most 13.4 dB and a large receiver dynamic range requirement are seen to be the costs of this simplified configuration.