We have investigated the optical characteristics of a directional coupler made of a side-polished polarization maintaining fiber in contact with a multimode planar waveguide and its applications as sensors. A device structural condition to achieve the polarization insensitive wavelength response has been presented. The fabricated devices revealed a superior immunity to the bending and the deformation of PM fibers in the input section. It is experimentally shown that the proposed device is suitable for a remote fiber sensor.