Silicon photonics is the leading platform for pho-tonic integrated circuits (PICs) because of its low fabrication cost and a small area on-chip, which allows the forefront of the industry to develop low-energy consuming devices. For the implementation of PICs, among passive devices, the most used because of its functionality is the power splitter. Y-junctions are power splitters that are compact and can deliver relatively wide-band frequency responses. In order to respond to the current demands of silicon photonics foundries, this work proposes a method based on the Particle Swarm Optimization to design always-feasible and mass-production oriented Y-junctions. We have achieved transmittances above 49%, and a flat frequency response in the SCL optical communications band. © 2020 IEEE.

The authors would like to acknowledge funding support from CONCYTEC-FONDECYT within the call E041-01 [contract number 015-2018-FONDECYT/BM].

F. J., R.R., and M.A. acknowledge funding support from CONCYTEC-FONDECYT within the call E041-01 [contract number 015-2018-FONDECYT/BM].

The authors acknowledge funding support from CONCYTEC-FONDECYT within the call E041-01 [contract number 015-2018-FONDECYT/BM]. H.E.H. acknowledges funding support from the Brazilian Agency CNPq under Projects No 465757/2014-6 (INCT FOTONICOM) and No 312714/2019-2 (HEH’s Research Productivity Grant)