A splitter/router based on a chirped waveguide grating router

Summary form only given. Splitter/routers are optical devices that evenly split the light from an input port among N output ports in one wavelength band but behave like an optical 1/spl times/N demultiplexer in another band. This functionality is important for optical networks because it allows one to overlay a wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) network with a broadcast type of network. Monolithic splitter/routers have been demonstrated with a reflective waveguide grating router (WGR), where the broadcast signal is injected into the waveguide grating, or by a complete WGR, monolithically integrated with a separate 1/spl times/N splitter and coarse wavelength selective 1/spl times/2 couplers. We propose and demonstrate a novel method to achieve this functionality, that is based on chirping the WGR.