A 1.55 µm polarization-insensitive lateral tapered spot-size converter integrated semiconductor optical amplifier (SSC-SOA) with tensile-strained barriers was investigated. The optical amplifier structure used a conventional ridge guide for the active layers and a second larger ridge for the passive waveguide. Low beam divergence of 12° × 15° results in about 3.1 dB coupling losses with −1 dB positional tolerances of ±2.3 µm and ±1.6 µm in horizontal and vertical directions using an anti-reflection coated flat-ended single-mode fibre. The active layer of SSC-SOA consisted of a tensile-strained barrier multiple-quantum-well structure. The SSC-SOA exhibited a signal gain of 25.5 dB and a saturation output power of 11.2 dB m with excellent polarization insensitivity (less than 0.5 dB) at 200 mA.