Recent progress on arrayed-waveguide grating multi/demultiplexers based on silica planar lightwave circuits

This paper reports recent advances on arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) multi/demultiplexers based on silica-based planar lightwave circuits (PLC). After briefly summarizing the fabrication and properties of PLCs, this work describes a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI)-synchronized AWG with reagrd to reduced loss, and athermalization. The paper then reports our recent demonstration of the integration of a PLC-based wavelength selective switch (WSS) and an integrated single-chip VMUX/DEMUX.