Patent ID: 7317853

Claim:
An optical component comprising a combination of optical waveguide elements for modifying the spot size of a mode of an electromagnetic field propagated by an optical waveguide element, the optical waveguide elements being formed on a substrate, the optical component comprising a) a first section, comprising a first optical waveguide element configured to sustain at least one mode of the electromagnetic field, b) a second section comprising at least two cooperating optical waveguide elements, each of said at least two cooperating optical waveguide elements comprising at least one waveguide segment, said at least two cooperating optical waveguide elements being optically connected to said first optical waveguide element of said first section; wherein said cooperating optical waveguide elements of said second section are adapted to maintain optical coupling between said optical waveguide elements to ensure that said at least one mode of the electromagnetic field is sustained by said at least two cooperating optical waveguide elements in cooperation, and said first optical waveguide element and said at least two cooperating optical waveguide elements are tapered to increase in width towards their common interconnection wherein the tapering of at least one of the edges of the first optical waveguide element and/or at least one of the edges of the at least two cooperating optical waveguide elements are defined by a generating curve essentially following a trigonometric functional path, or an n th order polynomial path of at least 5 th order.