4 × 4 Nonblocking Silicon Thermo-Optic Switches Based on Multimode Interferometers

Author

Liangjun Lu ; Linjie Zhou ; Shulin Li ; Zuxiang Li ; Xinwan Li ; Jianping Chen

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electron. Eng., Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ., Shanghai, China

Volume

33

Issue

4

fYear

2015

fDate

Feb.15, 15 2015

Firstpage

857

Lastpage

864

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate a silicon 4 × 4 nonblocking thermo-optic (TO) switch using a generalized Mach-Zehnder interferometer constructed on multimode interferometers. All the 24 switching states for nonblocking switching are characterized. The device fabricated using CMOS technologies has a footprint of 2.8 × 0.65 mm². The measured average on-chip insertion loss is 9 ± 2 dB and the crosstalk for all switching states is better than -12 dB. The average TO switching power consumption is 109 mW. The switching functionality is verified by transmission of a 40-Gb/s quadrature phase-shift keying optical signal.

Keywords

Mach-Zehnder interferometers; integrated optics; optical switches; silicon; thermo-optical devices; CMOS technologies; Si; average TO switching power consumption; average on-chip insertion loss; generalized Mach-Zehnder interferometer; multimode interferometers; nonblocking silicon thermo-optic switches; quadrature phase-shift keying optical signal; switching functionality; switching states; Crosstalk; Optical attenuators; Optical crosstalk; Optical fibers; Optical switches; Integrated optics; integrated optics; optical interconnections; optical switches;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Lightwave Technology, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0733-8724

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JLT.2014.2376933

Filename

6980116