Highly compact silica-based PLC-type 1/spl times/32 splitters using 127 /spl mu/m-spacing output and 0.4%-/spl Delta/ waveguides

Highly compact 1/spl times/32 splitters were fabricated using silica-based planar lightwave circuit (PLC) technologies. The chip size was reduced to 6/spl times/24 mm/sup 2/ by using a 127 /spl mu/m-pitch fibre array and 0.4%-/spl Delta/ waveguides with a 15 mm bending radius. This is /spl sim/1/4 of the size of a conventional 1/spl times/32 splitter. The assembled splitter modules showed low insertion losses of <16.9 dB.