Bend-insensitive optical fiber with high-mechanical reliability for silicon photonic packaging

In this paper, we propose bend insensitive fiber designs that can meet both the bend loss and mechanical reliability needs for silicon photonic packaging. To improve the bend loss, we adopt profile designs with a low index trench that allow us to reduce the bending loss while keeping the mode field diameter compatible with the standard single mode fiber. To improve the mechanical reliability, we put a Titania-doped glass layer on the surface of the fiber cladding, which improves the fiber reliability under tight bending conditions. We describe both the core and Titania layer designs and present results on fiber optical and mechanical performances.