Arrayed Waveguide Dynamic Gain Equalization Filter with Reduced Insertion Loss and Increased Dynamic Range

We present an arrayed waveguide dynamic gain equalization filter with less than 4.5 dB insertion loss and greater than 14 dB dynamic range over the C-band because of three improvements: 1) a circulator and polarization splitter combined into one, used to make the device polarization insensitive; 2) segmentation in the star coupler transition regions; and 3) an exponential control wavelength distribution.