8 x 8 optical switch matrix using generalized Mach-Zehnder interferometers

Author

Earnshaw, M.P. ; Soole, J.B.D. ; Cappuzzo, M. ; Gomez, L. ; Laskowski, E. ; Paunesc, A.

Author_Institution

Agere Syst., Murray Hill, NJ, USA

Volume

15

Issue

6

fYear

2003

fDate

6/1/2003 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

810

Lastpage

812

Abstract

We report an 8/spl times/8 strictly nonblocking optical cross connect (OXC) using multimode imaging (MMI)-based generalized Mach-Zehnder (MZ) interferometers realized in the silica-on-silicon planar waveguide system. Employing a router-selector architecture, this MMI-MZ OXC design results in a significantly smaller device than conventional directional-coupler based implementations. An average insertion loss of 6 dB and crosstalk of -34 dB, is demonstrated for the 8/spl times/8 OXC.

Keywords

Mach-Zehnder interferometers; optical communication equipment; optical crosstalk; optical design techniques; optical fabrication; optical losses; optical planar waveguides; wavelength division multiplexing; 6 dB; 8/spl times/8 optical switch matrix; 8/spl times/8 strictly nonblocking optical cross connect; MMI-MZ OXC design; WDM; average insertion loss; crosstalk; generalized Mach-Zehnder interferometers; integrated optics; multimode imaging based generalized Mach-Zehnder interferometers; router-selector architecture; silica-on-silicon planar waveguide system; Mach-Zehnder interferometers; Optical crosstalk; Optical imaging; Optical interferometry; Optical losses; Optical planar waveguides; Optical switches; Optical waveguides; Planar waveguides; Transmission line matrix methods;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2003.811144

Filename

1200207