Fabrication of 17×17 polymer/Si arrayed waveguide grating with flat spectral response using steam-redissolution technique

Arrayed waveguide grating(AWG) is a key device in the wavelength-division multiplexing(WDM) system, and the flat spectral response of the AWG device is required.In this paper,the RIE process has been improved.By using the steam-redissolution technique,the insertion loss and the crosstalk have been reduced.Experimental results show that the central wavelength is 1550.86 nm,the channel spectral response flatness is about 1.5 dB,3-dB bandwidth is about 0.478 nm,insertion loss is 10.5 dB,and crosstalk is about-22 dB.The insertion loss of an AWG device is reduced by about 3 dB for the central channel and 4.5 dB for the edge channels,and the crosstalk is reduced by 2.5 dB after the steam-redissolution.