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Ma H S, Du T, Jiang X P, et al. Inverse-designed silicon-based on-chip power splitters[J]. Opto-Electron Eng, 2023, 50(7): 230086. doi: 10.12086/oee.2023.230086
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Inverse-designed silicon-based on-chip power splitters
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Abstract
The silicon-based on-chip power splitter, an important component of the photonic integrated circuits, has much wider scope of applications such as feedback circuits, tap-port power monitoring, and optical quantization. The design methods of the nanophotonic devices can be roughly divided into the forward design and inverse design methods. This review article outlines the differences and connections between the forward design and inverse design methods, and classifies the inverse design algorithms. In addition, the review article summarizes the representative inverse-designed silicon-based on-chip power splitters in recent years, including multichannel power splitters, arbitrary-split-ratio power splitters, multimode power splitters, broadband power splitters, and multifunction power splitters. Finally, the summary and outlook are made on the development trend of the inverse design algorithms and the inverse-designed power splitters. -
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References
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Overview
The photonic integrated circuits (PICs) have been widely accepted as a viable alternative to support futuristic data communication networks. Specifically, silicon photonics offer a more promising and attractive platform to address the growing demands for optical communications due to its unique combination of low fabrication costs, low power consumption, compact footprint, and compatibility with mature complementary metal oxide semiconductor processes. The silicon-based on-chip nanophotonic devices are becoming fundamental building blocks of the complex PICs. The device-design methods can be roughly divided into the forward design and inverse design methods. The forward design method, a mechanism-orientation method, relying on the intuition, experience, and physical effect, usually finds the good device performance by tuning small sets of the characteristic parameters. While remarkable success has been accomplished using the forward design method, the trial-and-error procedure of this method becomes computationally costly and time-inefficient due to the continuously increasing complexity of the nanophotonic devices. In addition, limited by the small parameter search space of the forward-designed nanophotonic device, the device generally occupies a large footprint and has a limited performance. Driven by the increasing demands for the high-density PICs in the practical applications, great progress has been made in the research of the inverse design method. The inverse design method, an objective-orientation method, has been proposed to overcome the shortcomings of the forward design method. The nanophotonic device with the compact footprint and low loss can be designed automatically by the inverse design method. The inverse design method provides a new avenue for the realization of photonic chips. The silicon-based on-chip power splitter has much wider scope of applications such as feedback circuits, tap-port power monitoring, and optical quantization. As a result, the power splitter has been attracting more and more attention in recent years. Although the forward-designed power splitters have good performances, their large footprints limit their further applications in the high-density and large-scale PICs. Inverse-designed silicon-based on-chip power splitters featuring compact footprint, low loss, multiple channels, and flexible functions, has become the key building block for realizing the high-density optical system. In this review, we outline the differences and connections between the forward design and inverse design methods, and classify the inverse design algorithms. In addition, we summarize the representative inverse-designed silicon-based on-chip power splitters in recent years, including multichannel power splitters, arbitrary-split-ratio power splitters, multimode power splitters, broadband power splitters, and multifunction power splitters. Finally, the summary and outlook are made on the development trend of the inverse design algorithms and the inverse-designed power splitters.
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Ma H S, Du T, Jiang X P, et al. Inverse-designed silicon-based on-chip power splitters[J]. Opto-Electron Eng, 2023, 50(7): 230086. doi: 10.12086/oee.2023.230086
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Figure 1.
Summary of the inverse-designed power splitters. A: The power splitter with four channels [62]; B: The power splitter with a split ratio of 1:2:1 [63]; C: The power splitter for the TE0, TE1, and TE2 modes [70]; D: The power splitter with 700 nm working bandwidth [71]; E: The tunable power splitter [72]
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Figure 2.
Summary of the forward design and inverse design methods
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Figure 3.
Structures and results of the single-device power splitters with multiple channels. (a) and (b) The 1 × 2 power splitter [75, 79]; (c) The 1 × 3 power splitter [86]; (d) The 1 × 4 power splitter [62]
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Figure 4.
Structures and results of the assembled power splitters with multiple channels. (a) The 1 × 4 power splitter assembled by three 1 × 2 power splitters with different output directions [60]; (b) The 1 × 6 power splitter assembled by one 1 × 2 power splitter and two 1 × 3 power splitters [86]
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Figure 5.
Structures and results of the power splitters with arbitrary split ratios. (a) The 1 × 3 power splitter with a split ratio of 1:2:1 [87]; (b) The 1 × 2 power splitters with the split ratios of 1:1, 1:2, and 1:3 [63]; (c) The 1 × 2 power splitter with the split ratios of 9:1, 8:2, 7:3, and 6:4 [88]
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Figure 6.
Forward and inverse neural network modeling [89]
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Figure 7.
Structures and results of the single-device power splitters with multiple modes. (a) The two-TE-mode power splitter [90]; (b) The three-TE-mode power splitter [70]; (c) The four-mode and dual-polarization power splitter [93]
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Figure 8.
Structures and results of the assembled power splitter with multiple modes [94]. (a) The SEM images; (b) The simulated light field distributions; (c) The measured transmission spectra
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Figure 9.
Structures and results of 1×4 power splitter working at 2 μm spectral range [95]
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Figure 10.
Structures and results of the broadband power splitters. (a) The 1×4 power splitter with 300 nm working bandwidth [96]; (b) The 1×2 power splitter with 445 nm working bandwidth [97]; (c) The 1×2 power splitter with 550 nm working bandwidth [98]; (d) The 1×2 power splitter with 700 nm working bandwidth [71]
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Figure 11.
Structures and results of the combined-functional power splitters. (a) The power splitter with different output directions [86]; (b) The power splitter with the arbitrary input waveguides [100]; (c) The power splitter with the mode conversion [101]; (d) The power splitter with the mode conversion and wavelength demultiplexing [102]
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Figure 12.
Structures and results of the tunable power splitters. (a) The GST-based power splitter with the reconfigured power ratios [72]; (b) The GSST-based power splitter with the straight passing and power splitting [103]; (c) The Sb2Se3-based power splitter with the reconfigured power ratios [104]
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