Mechanical optical switch using flexible polymeric waveguide

Author

Saito, Takeshi ; Tabata, Seiichiro ; Sugitatsu, Atsushi ; Hatta, Tatsuo

Author_Institution

Inf. Technol. R&D Center, Mitsubishi Electr. Corp., Itami, Japan

fYear

2002

fDate

17-22 Mar 2002

Firstpage

14

Lastpage

15

Abstract

We have proposed the novel optical switch using the polymeric waveguide, which is expected to have several advantages, such as low insertion loss, high reliability, and low cost. The polymeric mechanical switch (POMS) takes advantage of flexibility of the polymeric waveguide, and switching operation is achieved controlling physical contact between the cores at the crosspoint. The excess transmission loss of 0.1 dB/crosspoint and the excess reflection loss of 1.9 dB/crosspoint are achieved. Also the switching time of less than 300 μs is successfully demonstrated. The total loss values of 2.4 and 10.2 dB are expected for shortest and longest paths within the 32×32 port count POMS, respectively.

Keywords

integrated optics; optical communication equipment; optical losses; optical polymers; optical switches; optical waveguides; telecommunication network reliability; 1.9 dB; 10.2 dB; 2.4 dB; 300 mus; excess reflection loss; excess transmission loss; flexible polymeric waveguide; high reliability; longest paths; low cost; low insertion loss; mechanical optical switch; physical contact; polymeric mechanical switch; port count; switching operation; switching time; total loss values; Costs; Mirrors; Optical arrays; Optical films; Optical losses; Optical polymers; Optical reflection; Optical switches; Optical waveguides; Scalability;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exhibit, 2002. OFC 2002

Print_ISBN

1-55752-701-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/OFC.2002.1036170

Filename

1036170