Nonlinear periodically poled ridge LiNbO3 waveguides have been fabricated on silicon substrates. Components are carved with only the use of a precision dicing machine without the need for grinding or polishing steps. They show efficient second harmonic generation at telecommunication wavelengths with normalized conversion reaching 204%/W in a 15 mm long device. The influence of the geometrical non uniformities of waveguides due to fabrication processes is asserted. Characteristics of the components are studied; notably their robustness and tunability versus temperature.

We report on low-loss vertical tapers for efficient coupling between confined LiNbO₃ optical ridge waveguides and Single Mode Fibers. 3D-Pseudo-Spectral-Time-Domain calculations and Optical-Coherence-Tomography-based methods are advantageously used for the numerical and experimental study of the tapers. The tapered-section is done simultaneously with the ridge waveguide by means of a circular precision dicing saw, so that the fabrication procedure is achieved in only two steps. The total insertion losses through a 1.6 cm long ridge waveguide are measured to be improved by 3 dB in presence of the taper. These tapered-ridge waveguides open the way to the low-cost production of low-loss phase modulators or resonators.