Modeling and design of arrayed waveguide gratings

An efficient and accurate modeling based on Fourier optics is presented to simulate the field propagation in an arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) demultiplexer. A modification is used to improve the accuracy, considering the fourth order quantitative error of the conventional formula. Using the modified formula, the spectral response characteristic of AWG is presented and simulation results show that this modeling is more accurate than the conventional one. Furthermore, a 1 × 256 channel AWG with 0.1 nm channel spacing is designed.