RESUMEN
A mode insensitive switch is proposed and experimentally demonstrated on a silicon-on-insulator platform using a balanced Mach-Zehnder interferometer structure with a mode insensitive phase shifter for on-chip mode division multiplexing interconnects. Switching the first three quasi-transverse electric (TE) modes, consuming less than 40 mW power is demonstrated. The whole system exhibits approximately $ - {2},\;{ - 3.7}$-2,-3.7, and $ - {5.2}\;{\rm dB}$-5.2dB insertion loss for the TE0, TE1, and TE2 modes at 1550 nm, respectively. The corresponding crosstalk is less than $ - {8.6}\;({\rm - 9}), {- 8} ({ - 10.3})$-8.6(-9),-8(-10.3), and $ - {10}\;{\rm dB}$-10dB ($ - {10.3}\;{\rm dB}$-10.3dB) within the wavelength range of 40 nm (1535-1575 nm) for the cross (bar) states, respectively. The extinction ratios (ERs) for the cross (bar) states are 20.1 (19.5), 22.8 (33.7), and 15.4 dB (18.1 dB) for the TE0, TE1, and TE2 modes at 1550 nm, respectively. The payload transmission is also conducted using non-return-to-zero pseudorandom binary sequence (PRBS)-31 data signals at 10 Gb/s for single-mode transmission and simultaneous three-mode transmissions. For all the scenarios, open eyes are observed.
RESUMEN
The design, fabrication, and characterization of an 8×8 lossless optical switch, based on semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) gates, is reported. It comprises three stages of 2×2 switches into an 8×8 Banyan switch, for a total of 48 SOAs. Three SOAs on each optical path provide gain to compensate for on-chip and fiber coupling loss, thereby making the optical switch lossless. All 64 optical paths demonstrate error-free 10 Gbps NRZ PRBS-31 transmission with at least 30 dB signal-to-noise ratio and less than 0.9 dB power penalty.