Ultracompact, multifunctional, and highly integrated 3×2 photonic switches

摘要

An ultracompact, multifunctional, and highly integrated photonic switch with a 3×2 configuration has been designed and fabricated with SiGe/Si material by using silicon-optical bench technology. This kind of switch can be used in fiber optic communications systems, photonic integrated circuits and wavelength division multiplexed networks as an optical power splitter, optical crossconnect, optical add-drop multiplexer, and wavelength division multiplexer simultaneously or individually. The function of the device is to combine multiwavelengths from different input channels and to switch them to different output channels. The operating wavelength range of the device is designed in C band, i.e., 1530-1570 nm. The device was characterized at 1540, 1550, and 1560 nm wavelengths. The performance at these wavelengths is found satisfactory. The measured insertion loss is less than 2 dB, ON/OFF ratio is greater than 30 dB, crosstalk is between -20 and -25 dB, and switching speed is 100-200 ns.