High-Performance 1 × 3 Plastic Optical Fiber Splitter Operating at 650 nm Based on a Planar Optical Waveguide

To address the demand for low-cost optical power splitters in short-reach optical communication systems, a high-performance 1 × 3 plastic optical fiber splitter based on a planar optical waveguide is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The structure was optimized using the beam propagation method and fabricated through a simple manual process. Experimental results show that the fabricated 1 × 3 POF splitter achieved a minimum excess loss of 1.77 dB, a splitting ratio of 31.64:35.75:32.61, and a minimum splitting uniformity of 0.53 dB at an operating wavelength of 650 nm. The proposed device represents a compact and economical solution for short-reach optical access network applications.