SBIR Phase I: High Performance Electro-Optic Switches

这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目将开发一种高性能的光交换机。光通信是现代通信行业发展最快的一项技术，满足了市场对带宽日益增长的需求。光纤通信天生就不受探测/拦截和干扰的影响，这对于导弹防御任务尤其重要，如激光雷达和其他军事通信。光开关是光通信中最关键的部件，也是迄今为止最薄弱的部件。光交换技术需要突破，提出一种创新的解决方案，克服目前的瓶颈，以最低的成本实现最先进的光交换。基于最近电光材料的突破和极其简单但创新的器件结构，所提出的光开关的性能将超过现有的任何解决方案，并将对光纤应用以及商业通信和光计算产生重大影响，低成本、高性能的光开关将在激光雷达、光纤传感器系统和局域网等国防系统中得到广泛应用。在光开关起关键作用的商业通信市场中，它也将有很大的应用。这种设备的市场潜力是巨大的，预计到2006年将达到30亿美元。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will develop a high performance optical switch. The optical communication is a fastest growing technology in modern communication industry meeting the ever-increase in market demand for bandwidth. Fiberoptic communication is inherently immune to detection/interception and jam, which is particularly important to missile defense missions, such as laser radar and other military communication. Optical switches are the most critical component in optical communication but yet the weakest part to date. Optical switch technology needs a breakthrough with technology that proposes an innovative solution to overcome the current bottleneck and achieve the state-of-the-art optical switch at the lowest cost. Based on the recent breakthrough of electro-optic material an extremely simple but innovative device architecture, the proposed optical switch will outperform any existing solutions and have a great impact to fiber-optic applications as well as commercial communication and optical computing.The low cost and high performance optical switch will have wide application in defense systems such as laser radar, fiber-optic sensor system, and local area networks. It will also have great application in commercial communication market where optical switches play a critical role. The market potential for such device is huge and is projected to reach $3 billion by year 2006.