Insertion Loss and Crosstalk Analysis of a Fiber Switch Based on a Pixelized Phase Modulator

We analyze the performance of a spatial fiber switching system when using a pixelized mirror, such as a LCoS or MEMS spatial light modulator, in place of a large tilting micromirror. Our findings demonstrate the dependence of insertion losses on tilt angles or fiber counts, and the dependence of the crosstalk in the number of phase quantization levels and random phase errors. The former effects can be minimized by satisfying a relationship between the tilt angle to a fiber, the pitch of the array, and the optical wavelength.