Performance analysis of a dispersion compensator using arrayed-waveguide gratings

We have developed a dispersion compensator that uses arrayed-waveguide gratings (AWGs) and a spatial filter. The compensator using AWGs with 380 waveguides in each array and the diffraction order of 53, can compensate a total second-order dispersion of 260 ps/nm with an eye-closure penalty of 1 dB for a 40-Gb/s nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ) signal. It is shown that the required spatial resolution of the spatial phase filter for compensation is 2.55 /spl mu/m for silica AWGs of usual design. The acceptable fluctuation in the refractive index of the waveguides in the AWGs is as large as 5/spl times/10/sup -5/.