Nonduplicate Polarization-Diversity 32 × 32 Silicon Photonics Switch Based on a SiN/Si Double-Layer Platform

Abstract

We fabricate and characterize a polarization-diversity 32 × 32 silicon photonics switch by newly introducing SiN overpass waveguides onto our nonduplicate polarization-diversity path-independent insertion-loss switch. The SiN overpass waveguides are used to simplify the optical paths with a uniform path length between the edge couplers and the switch matrix and significantly reduce the number of waveguide intersections. The switch chip is fabricated using a 300-mm silicon-on-insulator wafer pilot line. The fabricated switch comprises more than 7,600 components, making this the largest ever complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor-based silicon photonics circuit. The switch chip is electrically and optically packaged and evaluated for a sampled port connection with 32 paths, with an average on-chip loss of ~35 dB and an average polarization-dependent loss of 3.2 dB where 75% of the measured paths exhibit a loss of less than 3 dB. The differential group delay is measured to be 1.7 ps. The performance can be further improved by optimizing the device design.