Polarization-insensitive 1D grating coupler based on a zero-birefringence subwavelength corelet waveguide

Grating coupler devices provide efficient, foundry-compatible vertical fiber-to-chip coupling solutions in integrated photonic platforms. However, standard grating coupler designs are highly polarization sensitive, which hinders their adoption. We present a new, to the best of our knowledge, type of 1D polarization-insensitive grating coupler (PIGC) that is based on a zero-birefringence subwavelength “corelet” waveguide. We demonstrate a PIGC for coupling in the telecommunications O-band in a 45-nm-node monolithic silicon-on-insulator (SOI) CMOS electronic-photonic platform, with measured insertion losses of 6.7 and 6.1 dB to transverse electric and transverse magnetic polarizations, respectively, and a ±1-dB polarization dependent loss bandwidth of 73 nm.