WDM Devices — AWG with Flat Response (2)

In the first chapter (WDM Devices — AWG with Flat Response), the reasons for the Flat Response required, cause for Gaussian Passband, and three main passband optimization proposals are introduced in brief. This chapter is about two other passband optimization proposals.

4) Shaping of Phase Transfer Function
Let’s review the proposals of adding MMI at the input and taper at the output. The core feature is to flatten the focused optical field or the eigen mode of the output waveguide. Thus the correlation function between the two optical fields is flattened. Anyway, the correlation between two mismatched optical fields will introduce excess power loss. The more is the mismatch, the more is the power loss. The AWG designers need to balance the passband width and the loss penalty.

WDM Devices — AWG with Flat Response

Why Is Flat Response Required?
In the all optical network (AON), the optical signals passed tens of nodes before reaching the destination node, as shown in Fig.1. The ROADM nodes are usually composed of wavelength selective switches (WSS), multiplexers/demultiplexers and optical switches. The wavelength multiplexers/demultiplexers are optical filters, including TFF-based WDM devices, arrayed waveguide gratings (AWG) and optical interleavers.