Silica based PON-AWG with 2/spl times/8 up- and downstream channels

We have proposed and demonstrated a 3-band passive optical network arrayed waveguide gratings (PON-AWG) providing 2/spl times/8 WDM channels for down- (around 1534 nm) and upstreaming (around 1557 nm) signals from the central office to the users, and vice-versa. The downstream ports are overlayed by a distributed broadcast signal at 1500 nm. All the needed optical functions (DEMUX-, MUX, imaging) are implemented in one AWG structure designed to accommodate the three specific bands. First devices fabricated in silica-on-silicon technique show a center insertion loss of 2.5 dB and a crosstalk of <-30 dB for the signals of the downstreaming paths. The 1 to 8 distribution system at 1500 nm shows an excess loss of -5.5 dB and a uniformity of +/-1.3 dB.