An athermal 40-channel dense wavelength-division-multiplexing multi/demultiplexer using a novel combination technology is proposed. It consists of one 1times4 100- to 400-GHz spacing interleaver filter and four sub-arrayed-waveguide gratings (AWGs). The temperature-dependent wavelength shift of the combined device is successfully suppressed to 0.058 nm in the -20degC to 70degC temperature range. Moreover, the combined device's adjacent crosstalk (typically -35 dB) is much better than conventional AWGs (typically -25 dB).