Waveguide end face

Details Waveguide end face Waveguide end face

1998-07-17

2001-07-24

Schuberg, Darren (Department: 2872)

Optical waveguides

Planar optical waveguide

C385S132000, C385S043000, C385S044000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06266468

ABSTRACT:

RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER APPLICATIONS:
The present application claims priority under 35 USC 119 from Great Britain application No. GB9812605.5, entitled “WAVEGUIDE END FACE” filed Jun. 12, 1998. The disclosures of the referenced application is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
1. Technical Field
This invention relates to an end face of an integrated optical waveguide and in particular to the end face of a rib waveguide formed on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) chip.
2. Background Art
The end face of an integrated waveguide, e.g. formed of silica, may be formed by a sawing process or by mechanical polishing to achieve an optical quality facet on the end of the waveguide for coupling light to or from another component, e.g. from a laser diode or to an optical fibre. In other cases, e.g. devices made from III V materials, such as InP or GaAs, the substrate can be cleaved along a crystallographic plane to produce an optical quality facet.
With silicon waveguides, e.g. on a silicon-on-insulator chip, the facets may be fabricated by a dry etching process using well-known lithographic techniques. This enables waveguide facets to be formed at arbitrary positions on a chip. However, with waveguides typically of a width in the range 4-10 microns, the resolution limit of standard pattern definition techniques, such as lithography, tends to cause a rounding of the facet which leads to undesirable aberrations in the passage of light therethrough and/or a focusing effect on light emitted or received by the facet.
DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION
According to the present invention, there is provided an integrated optical waveguide having an end face provided on an end portion of the waveguide, the end portion being formed so that said end portion and the end face provided thereon have a width greater than the width of the waveguide leading to the end portion.
Preferred and optional features of the invention will be apparent from the following description and from the claims that follow.


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Osamu Mitomi, “Design of a Single-Mode Tapered Waveguide for Low-Loss Chip-to-Fiber Coupling” Aug. 8, 1994, IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics No. 8, pp. 1787-1793.

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