Abstract

Silica-based planar waveguides, which are now used in applications such as optical branching and switching, are expected to be widely used in optical communication networks. Low coupling loss is required between these waveguides and optical fibers if they are to be fully exploited. Moreover, assembly should be easy. Conventional techniques for coupling single-mode waveguides and fibers use active core alignment and splicing.^1,2 This paper proposes a new single-mode-waveguide-to-multifiber coupling method that uses a completely passive alignment technique.

© 1995 Optical Society of America