Software Tool To Design Mmi Splitters/Couplers For Photonic Integrated Circuits

Due to the small footprint and good performance, the Multimode Interference (MMI) structures are building blocks with significant importance in the design of Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs). These devices have many applications and their use as splitter or couplers are some of the most commonly used.In this paper, we present a tool to design MMI splitters/couplers for PICs based on coupled mode theory. This tool allows design to MMI splitters/couplers with dimensions as small as possible while maintaining good performance with low design excess losses. The proposed tool allows that users with different technical backgrounds can design an MMI coupler/splitter. Thus, it is useful for academic proposes but also offers a good starting point for experts with access to high performance optimization software. The Beam Propagation Method (BPM) was used to validate some designed structures achieving design excess losses below 0.8 dB.