Silicon nitride arrayed waveguide grating de-multiplexer for high-throughput optical satellite links

Kurzfassung

Dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) technology is essential to achieve high throughput data links in optical space communications. Yet, the bandwidth allocation suggested for satellite optical links differs from that of terrestrial networks, for it explicitly separates and regulates the uplink and downlink wavelengths. Moreover, the requirements of cost, size, weight, and power (C-SWaP) a satellite is subjected to significantly differ from that of a terrestrial node. This distinction can justify the design of a dedicated de-multiplexer in place of commercial off-the-shelf solutions, which, taking advantage of photonic integrated circuits (PICs) technology, is optimized for the requirements of bandwidth and space payloads. In this work, we propose an arrayed-waveguide grating (AWG) design that can operate simultaneously, on the same device, as multiplexer and de-multiplexer with the suggested bandwidth allocation. The AWG is polarization-insensitive, targeting a silicon nitride platform to achieve small footprint and low losses. As an example application, we simulated and studied the transmission of an AWG with two (1×8) 100 GHz channels using a semi-analytical numerical method. The effects of radiation and fabrication tolerances were also considered. The results show that the design is a promising step towards the development of PIC-based de-multiplexers for satellite optical links.