Athermal Mach-Zehnder interferometer-synchronised arrayed waveguide grating multi/demultiplexer with low loss and wide passband

Described is a silica-based athermal 100 GHz-spacing 40-channel arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) with a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI)-synchronised configuration that employs resin-filled grooves in the AWG and MZI. By suppressing the groove excess loss and using 1.5%-Δ waveguides, a low insertion loss of 3.2 dB and a wide 0.5 dB bandwidth of 45.9 GHz with athermal operation in the −5 to 65°C range and a compact chip size were achieved.