Ultra-broad bandwidth array waveguide grating for high-speed backbone network transmission

Abstract

With the rapid development of the backbone network rates, there has been a gradual increase in channel spacing and bandwidth. The C&L band ultra-broad bandwidth array waveguide gratings (AWG) of 60-channel 100 GHz channel spacing are designed and fabricated based on silica waveguide. A new parabolic design is used to achieve ultra-broad bandwidth and good spectrum. For the C band ultra-broad bandwidth AWG, the peak insertion loss, uniformity, 0.5 dB bandwidth, 1 dB bandwidth and 3 dB bandwidth are 2.98 dB, 0.36 dB, 0.614 nm, 0.721 nm and 0.937 nm, respectively. For the L band ultra-broad bandwidth AWG, the peak insertion loss, uniformity, 0.5 dB bandwidth, 1 dB bandwidth and 3 dB bandwidth are 2.91 dB, 0.27 dB, 0.560 nm, 0.665 nm and 0.879 nm, respectively. To ensure ultra-broad bandwidth AWG operation at different temperatures, a temperature control circuit is integrated into the packaging design. It has been observed that the performances remain virtually unchanged within the temperature range of −15 to 65 degree. The ultra-broadband AWGs have been successfully tested to transmit 96 Gbaud signals and can be applied to 600 G/800 G backbone network transmission. By using the C&L ultra-broad bandwidth AWGs of 60-channel 100 GHz channel spacing, the total transmission speed over a single-mode fiber can reach 72Tbps/96Tbps.