High Power Performance Assessment of Low-Loss Spot Size Converter based on Self-aligned Passive Fiber Attach Process

There is a growing demand for increased power handling capability for fiber to chip edge couplers for performance scaling. In lieu of this demand, we are showcasing the power handling capability of our edge couplers, with an emphasis on highlighting the performance differences between silicon (Si) based spot size converters (SSCs) and silicon nitride (SiN) SSCs. We demonstrate how the nonlinear characteristics of silicon affect the power dependent insertion loss of the SSCs and how that challenge is addressed by utilizing SiN SSCs. Our fiber attach process working in conjunction with SiN SSCs show impressive performance up to 280 mW (24.4 dBm).