OPTICAL WAVELENGTH MULTIPLEXING AND DEMULTIPLEXING CIRCUIT

摘要

An optical wavelength multiplexing/de-multiplexing circuit having a low loss and a flat transmission spectrum is provided. The optical wavelength multiplexing/de-multiplexing circuit compensates a temperature dependence of a center transmission wavelength which remains in an athermal AWG, and has an excellent accuracy of the center transmission wavelength in a whole operating temperature range or has a comparatively wide operable temperature range. Focusing on the fact that a center transmission wavelength of an MZI-synchronized AWG is approximately an average of a transmission wavelength of the MZI and the center transmission wavelength of the AWG, the temperature dependence of the transmission wavelength in the athermal MZI is modulated and set so as to cancel the temperature dependence of the center wavelength which remains in the athermal AWG. The present invention focuses particularly on an optical coupler in the MZI and modulates the temperature dependence of the transmission wavelength in the MZI by providing the optical coupler itself with a mechanism which changes a phase difference between two outputs by temperature.