The PLC planar waveguide optical fiber splitter is made by semiconductor technology (lithography, corrosion, development and other technologies). The optical waveguide array is located on the upper surface of the chip, and the branching function is integrated on the chip, that is, 1, 1 and other branching functions are realized on one chip; Then, the input and output multi-channel fiber arrays are coupled at both ends of the chip and packaged.

Compared with the fused taper splitter, the PLC splitter has the following advantages:
(1) The loss is insensitive to the wavelength of light and can meet the transmission requirements of different wavelengths.
(2) The light distribution is uniform, and the signal can be evenly distributed to users.
(3) Compact structure, small size, can be directly installed in existing various junction boxes, without leaving much installation space.
(4) There are many branching channels for a single device, which can reach more than 32 channels.
(5) The cost of multiplexing is low. The more shunts, the more obvious the cost advantage.

At the same time, the main disadvantages of the PLC splitter are:
(1) The device manufacturing process is complex, the technical threshold is high, the chip is monopolized by several foreign companies, and there are few domestic enterprises that can package and produce in large quantities.
(2) Compared with the fused taper splitter, the cost is higher, especially in the low channel splitter.