20-μm-pitch eight-channel monolithic fiber array coupling 160 Gb/s/channel to silicon nanophotonic chip

A multichannel tapered coupler interfacing standard 250-μm-pitch low-NA polarization-maintaining fiber arrays with ultra-dense 20-μm-pitch high-NA silicon waveguides is designed, fabricated, and tested, demonstrating coupling losses below 1 dB and injection bandwidths of 160 Gb/s/channel.