A new general approach to optical waveguide path design

This paper introduces a new general approach to waveguide path design. We propose an alternative approach to the usual concatenation of offset line segments and arc of circles that is geometrically less constrictive and more versatile. We also propose an adapted pure bend loss reduction mechanism that relies on a continuous widening of the waveguide together with the reduction of transition loss through curvature adaptation. The numerical results presented here show that this method can improve the loss figures and ease the burden of waveguide path design. Moreover, because of its continuous nature, the proposed approach is intrinsically less dependent on wavelength than the usual concatenation technique.>