In this paper, the performance of a two-port single-mode fiber–silicon wire waveguide coupler module which utilizes an identical spot-size converter (SSC) at the input and output ports is reported. Each of the silicon (Si)-based SSCs comprised cascaded horizontal linear and vertical nonlinear up-tapers measured 300 and 200 $\mu$m in length, respectively, in a common silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate. The structural parameters of the tapers were designed for compactness and relaxed tolerance to fabrication errors. The total length of the two-port coupler module was 1000 $\mu$m plus the variable length of the wire waveguide connecting the two SSCs. The mode-field diameter (MFD) of the Si-wire waveguide, 0.32$\,\times\,$0.46 $\mu$m$^{2}$, was transformed to the diameter of 2.8$\,\times\,$8.0 $\mu$m$^{2}$ at the wavelength of 1.55 $\mu$m (corresponding to an area expansion of about 150 times) and vice versa by the SSCs with a net transmission loss of 4.1 dB/port. The field-mismatch loss between the SSC and the single-mode fiber with the MFD of 5.2 $\mu$m was 2.1 dB/port.

© 2009 IEEE

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