Loss-imbalance equalization in arrayed waveguide-grating (AWG) multiplexer cascades

How to connect arrayed-waveguide-grating (AWG) multiplexers in cascade is discussed with the goal of equalizing the loss imbalance among frequency-division-multiplexed (FDM) channels. This paper proposes to average the FDM-channel loss over the cascaded multiplexers by shifting port connections between each adjacent multiplexer. A simulation predicts that, in a cascade of M periodic N×N multiplexers, shifting the connections by N/M reduces the loss imbalance from MΔα to Δα/M where Δα [dB] denotes the loss imbalance per multiplexer. This improvement will extend the cascadable node number in all-optical FDM networks. The prediction is confirmed experimentally in an optical add-drop filter (M=2) constructed with a silica-based AWG 16×16 multiplexer; the largest loss difference among 15 FDM channels is reduced from 5.0 dB to 1.5 dB. This paper also reports that imperfect multiplexer periodicity due to waveguide dispersion restricts the equalizable frequency bandwidth to less than several free spectral ranges (FSR´s)