A 1×16 multimode interference (MMI) optical power splitter which allows for connecting with the standard single mode fiber arrays for optical communication directly is designed and fabricated. The input and output single mode waveguides are optimized by the discrete spectral index method (DSIM). Single mode rib waveguide with low theoretical propagation loss (～0.028 dB) and with rib width of 3 μm and rib height of 2.9 μm is obtained. Analysis shows that the deep etched MMI optical power splitter has large fabrication tolerance, big bandwidth and insensitive polarization. The measurement results show that the function of 1 to 16 uniform splitting has been realized in the device.