A compact arrayed-waveguide grating with small-bend waveguides incorporating air trenches and high mesa structures has been proposed. An 8-channel, 100-GHz-spacing silica arrayed-waveguide grating was fabricated, and its size was reduced dramatically to 1/4 of that of a conventional device.

A dual-core spot size converter (DC-SSC) is integrated with a lateral grating assisted lateral co-directional coupler (LGLC) tunable laser by using no additional complicated fabrication processes. The excess loss due to the DC-SSC is only 0.5 dB, and narrow full width half maximums (FWHMs) of vertical and horizontal far-field patterns (FFPs) produced by the laser are about 25° and 20°. This integration causes no degradations of the performance of the LGLC laser; in other words, it maintains good lasing characteristics, namely, wide tuning range of over 68 nm and SMSR of over 35 dB in the C-band under a 50 semi-cooled condition.

A lens-integrated surface-emitting DFB laser and its application to low-cost single-mode optical sub-assemblies (OSAs) are discussed. By using the LISEL, high-efficient optical coupling with reduced number of optical components and non-hermetic packaging are demonstrated. Designing the integrated lens of LISELs makes it possible to achieve passive alignment optical coupling to an SMF without the need for an additional lens. For SiP coupling, the light-emission angle from the LISEL can be controlled by the mirror angle and by displacing the lens. The capability for a low coupling loss of 3.9 dB between the LISEL and a grating coupler on the SiP platform was demonstrated. The LISEL with facet-free structure, integrating DBR mirror, PD, and window structure on its end facet, showed the same lasing performance as the conventional laser with AR facet coating. A storage test (200-hour saturated pressure-cooker test (PCT) at 138°C and 85% RH.) showed that the lasing characteristics did not degrade with high-humidity, demonstrating the potential for applying non-hermetic packaging. Our results indicate that the LISEL is one of the promising light sources for creating cost-effective OSAs.