Losses in single-mode silicon-on-insulator strip waveguides and bends

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

We report the fabrication and accurate measurement of propagation and bending losses in single-mode silicon waveguides with submicron dimensions fabricated on silicon-on-insulator wafers. Owing to the small sidewall surface roughness achieved by processing on a standard 200mm CMOS fabrication line, minimal propagation losses of 3.6+/-0.1dB/cm for the TE polarization were measured at the telecommunications wavelength of 1.5microm. Losses per 90 masculine bend are measured to be 0.086+/-0.005dB for a bending radius of 1microm and as low as 0.013+/-0.005dB for a bend radius of 2microm. These record low numbers can be used as a benchmark for further development of silicon microphotonic components and circuits.