The birefringence originated from the residual stress of the silica waveguide on the silicon and the SOI(Silicon on Insulator) rib waveguide is analyzed using the finite element method. It is found that the coefficient of the stress birefringence is of the order of 10^－4 for the silica waveguide on the silicon;the coefficient is of the order of 10^－5 and 10^－3 for the SOI rib waveguide covered by air and SiO₂ respectively. It can be seen that the large birefringence arise in the silica waveguide on the silicon and the SOI rib waveguide covered by the SiO₂ while there is small birefringence in the SOI rib waveguide covered by air.