Desing of Athermal Cyclic AWG for Super PON

We present design and simulation of an athermal 20-channel, 100-GHz cyclic Arrayed Waveguide Grating (AWG) with 2.2THz Free Space Range (FSR) within 4 periods of FSR at C and L telecom bands for super PON. The athermal cyclic AWG is designed on athermal waveguide structure of silicon oxynitride waveguide layer, polymethyl methacrylate cover layer on a silicon substrate with a thermal silicon dioxide buffer layer. The used athermal waveguide structure effectively reduces temperature-induced central wavelength shift of AWG to value 0.866 pm/°C. The athermal cyclic AWG is designed for a central wavelength of 1555.35 nm by two commercial photonics design tools: the PHASAR tool from Optiwave and Synopsys BeamPROP AWG Utility. The simulated transmission characteristics from both photonics design tools are compared and studied with focus on insertion loss and insertion loss non-uniformity.