Waveguide Y junction

Power splitters such as Y-junctions are widely used in photonic integrated circuits across different applications. When designing a power splitter, we aim to achieve a flat broadband response, low insertion loss, and compact footprint. At the same time, the design needs to comply with the fabrication resolution and tolerance.

In this example, we demonstrate the modeling of a Y-junction for integrated photonics. The designed device shows an average insertion loss below 0.2 dB in the wavelength range of 1500 nm to 1600 nm. At the same time, it has a small footprint. The junction area is smaller than 2 by 2 , much smaller than the typical power splitters based on multimode interference devices. The design is adapted from Yi Zhang, Shuyu Yang, Andy Eu-Jin Lim, Guo-Qiang Lo, Christophe Galland, Tom Baehr-Jones, and Michael Hochberg, “A compact and low loss Y-junction for submicron silicon waveguide,” Opt. Express 21, 1310-1316 (2013) (opens new window).

To view the full example in Python, please click here (opens new window).