Thermo-optic SOI waveguide switch matrix

Optical switches are important devices in optical communications. A blocking 8??8 thermo-optic waveguide switch matrix and a rearrangeable nonblocking one are designed and fabricated on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer. The building block of the matrix is a 2??2 switch cell with a Mach-Zehnder interferometer(MZI) configuration, where a general multi-mode interferometer (MMI) serves as splitter/combiners. Nonblocking switch matrix presents excess loss of 10.9dB7tild;13.6dB and crosstalk of -26.6dB7tild;-13.5dB. Blocking one presents excess loss of 6.6dB?9.6dB and crosstalk of -25.8dB~-16.8dB. Their extinction ratios vary from 17dB to 25dB. The power consumption of each switch cell is less than 240mW.The response time is less than 3??s. The power consumption and the response times are much better than that of silica-based or polymer-based switch matrix because of the large thermo-optic coefficient and the high thermal conductivity of silicon. ? 2009 SPIE.EI