High-Density, Reconfigurable Optical Routing Interconnects

High-density reconfigurable optical routing interconnect is introduced in this SBIR program for optical signal processing. This structure is based on three key features: 1) Polarization manipulation using 2-D spatial light modulators; 2) polarization complementary geometry; and 3) the throw-away undesired optical energies design. The polarization manipulation provides the basis for "no-moving" parts optical routing switchings. The polarization complementary geometry provides high extinction ratio polarization conversion using polarization controlling elements. Finally, the throw-away concept achieves the high performance, low crosstalk optical signal processing units that are independent to the operating environments and conditions. To show this novel concept, a proof-of-principle 1 x 2 optical switch will be constructed. This switch has a specification of -50 dB crosstalk, -1 dB insertion loss, microsecond response times, polarization insensitive operation, wide operating spectrum, low power consumption, and insensitive to the operating temperature. It is a break through optical routing switch that achieves several high mark specifications simultaneously. The architecture proposed in this SBIR can be further extended to other type of optical signal processing units, for examples, the switchable add/drop optical filter, tunable dense-wavelength-division-multiplexing (DWDM) component, switchable WDM, and optical circulator. It is a brand new technology and the potential is enormous in the fields of optical signal processing and fiber optic communications. The direct impact of this optical switch is that it can replace the conventional opto-mechanical switches that have relatively limited life time and consumed high power. It can be deployed to the fiber optic network for network switching application.It can also be cascaded or formed as a two-dimensional array for more complex N x M optical signal routing processing.