Multimode Waveguides on an SOI Platform for Arbitrary Power Splitting Ratio Couplers

Optical power couplers with arbitrary power splitting ratios are important components for many applications such as Mach-Zehnder interferometer-based structures, filters, switches, dispersion compensations, optical interconnects, and microring resonators. In this chapter, we present a new approach to achieve a very high compact coupler with arbitrary power splitting ratios on silicon on insulator (SOI) waveguides. The proposed device requires only one 4×4 multimode interference (MMI) coupler. We use a passive wide SOI waveguide to achieve the phase shifter. The footprint of the whole device is only about 6×150 μm2. A large fabrication tolerance of ±50 nm can be achieved. The modified effective index method, beam propagation method, finite difference method, and finite difference-time difference method are used to optimally design the whole device