Loss uniformity improvement for cyclic arrayed waveguide grating based on silicon nanowire waveguides

A cyclic arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) router based on silicon nanowire waveguides with uniform channel insertion loss is designed and experimentally demonstrated. Different from conventional design, the directions of arrayed waveguides are no longer pointed to the central output waveguide, but are adjusted according to a distribution function. The experimental results show that the channel insertion loss non-uniformity is reduced from 2.7 dB to 1.1 dB. This uniform loss design does not change the overall construction of AWGs, and does not increase the device size.