VPIphotonics – Reconfigurable Power Splitter with MMI

Description

This example illustrates that a reconfigurable power splitter can be implemented by a single 5x5 MMI coupler. By applying the input signal at different ports it operates as a nonuniform 1x5 or as uniform 1x4 and 1x3 power splitter [1] (see Figure 1).
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Typical Results

The distribution of the electrical field inside the MMI as well as vertical slices at desired points along the length can be visualized in order to optimize the dimensions of length and ports widths. When the input signal is applied to the first port, it operates as a 1x5 nonuniform power splitter (Figure 2). In Figure 3 represents the field when the input signal is applied to the second port. In that case a uniform 1x3 splitting ratio is accomplished. When the input signal is applied to the third (middle) port, it features a 1x4 uniform power splitter (Figure 4).
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Further Information

Keywords: Multimode interference, MMI, Coupler, Internal Visualizer, Visualization, Photonic Integrated Circuits, PICs

Similar demonstrations are available in VPIComponentMaker Photonic Circuits and on the VPIphotonics Forum.

[1] M. Bachmann, P. A. Besse, and H. Melchior, "Overlapping-image multimode interference couplers with a reduced number of self-images for uniform and nonuniform power splitting", Appl. Opt., vol. 34, pp. 6898-6910, 1995.
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