Dimensional Tolerance Analysis for 50 GHz 12-Channel Silicon Arrayed Waveguide Grating

Abstract

We present a dimensional tolerance analysis of a 12-channel Arrayed Waveguide Grating (AWG) with 50 GHz channel spacing, designed and fabricated on a silicon-oninsulator (SOI) platform. The AWG was simulated using RSoft BeamPROP. Experimental measurements revealed notable spectral deviations. To identify the origins, we evaluated the effects of fabrication-induced variations including waveguide width and height deviations and refractive index fluctuations. Dimensional tolerance simulations confirmed that these imperfections degrade Silicon AWG's performance, underscoring the importance of tolerance-aware design in silicon photonic integrated circuits (PICs).