SGER: Characterization of InP as a MEMS Material for the Development of Micro-Electro-Mechanical Lossless Cross-Connect Waveguide Switch

我们设想开发一种基于机械换能器的创新光交叉连接开关，用于在光波导之间切换，如图1所示。它由连接到开关上的4个输入波导的4根输入光纤组成。在每个连接点上，一个微激活的微级可以沿着45轴移动，以允许将光束转向相对于原始方向90。通过这种方式，任何输入都可以以非阻塞的方式转向任何输出。与通常在微光电机械系统领域所做的相反，开关的机械运动不是使用硅技术实现的，而是直接在III-V化合物半导体[1]中实现的。这有一个重要的优势，即允许将有源（即半导体激光器，SOA等）和无源波导器件（如WDM滤波器，阵列波导光栅）与开关结构集成在一起。可以设想，这将导致在单个芯片上的复杂波长交叉连接系统。通过最大限度地减少运动部件的质量和将所需的位移减少到3微米的距离，可以优化开关时间。在一种可能状态下被激活的耗散。在4个输出波导上，SOA是单片集成的，以补偿光学损耗，就像我们最近展示的无损1 × 2分路器一样。利用PARC平台技术[2]，可以使用无源-有源谐振耦合器将模式从无源波导移动到垂直定位的有源波导。

We envision the development of an innovative optical cross-connect switch based on mechanical transducers for switching between optical waveguides as shown in Figure 1. It consists of 4 input fibers connected to 4 input waveguides on the switch. At each of the interconnect points, a microactivated micro-stage can be moved along a 45 axis to allow for steering the beam at 90 with respect to the original direction. In this way, any inputs can be steered to any outputs in a non-blocking way. Contrary to what is typically done in the area of micro-opto-electro-mechanical systems, the mechanical movements of the switch are not implemented using silicon technology but are directly realized in III-V compound semiconductors [1]. This has the important advantage of permitting the monolithic integration of active (i.e. semiconductor lasers, SOA, etc.) and passive waveguide devices (like the WDM filters, arrayed waveguide gratings) with the switching fabric. It can be envisioned that this should lead to complex wavelength cross-connect systems on a single chip. Switching time will be optimized by minimizing the mass of the moving parts and by reducing the required displacements to distances of the order of 3 microns. Dissipation of activated in one of its possible states. On the 4 output waveguides, SOA's are monolithically integrated to compensate for optical losses in the same way that we recently demonstrated a lossless 1 x 2 splitter. A passive-active resonant coupler to move the mode from a passive waveguide to a vertically positioned active waveguide using the PARC platform technology [2] can be used for the integration.