An SOI-based ultra-compact dual-mode variable optical attenuator based on inverse design
TL;DR
An SOI ultra-compact dual-mode variable optical attenuator (DM-VOA) that uniformly attenuates the TE0 and TE1 modes. Built on a Mach-Zehnder interferometer with the thermo-optic effect, the whole device is only 248 µm long (its inverse-designed dual-mode splitter just 6 µm). It achieves ~60 dB maximum attenuation for both modes at a total power of 30.7 mW.
Highlights
- Dual-mode VOA uniformly attenuating TE0 and TE1; ~60 dB max attenuation at 30.7 mW
- MZI + thermo-optic structure; total device length only 248 µm
- Inverse-designed dual-mode 3 dB splitter at 2.88 × 6 µm² (2–3 orders smaller than MMIs), IL 2.2 / 1.7 dB
- Analog and digital topology optimization (ADTO); CMOS-compatible
Citation
A. Sun et al., "An SOI-based ultra-compact dual-mode variable optical attenuator based on inverse design," IEEE OECC 2024, Melbourne, Jun. 2024.