HIGH SPEED OPTOELECTRONIC SWITCH

DEVELOPMENT OF HIGH SPEED SWITCHES AND SWITCHING SYSTEMS IS CRITICAL TO MEET THE THROUGHPUT AND INTERCONNECTIVITY NEEDS OF EFFICIENT HIGH AND LOW-DATA-RATE FMD AND TDM COMMUNICATION AMONG A LARGE NETWORK. IN A TYPICAL SCENARIO DATA FROM MANY PROCESSORS AND SENSORS MUST BE TRANSMITTED AND ROUTED AT TREMENDOUS RATES FOR EFFECTIVE DECISION MAKING. THE LARGE TIME BANDWIDTH OF THE DATA EMANATING FROM CERTAIN SOURCES (GHZ RATES) MANDATES THE USE OF OPTICALCOMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY. TO ADDRESS THESE NEEDS APA OPTICS IS PROPOSING AN EFFORT THAT IS FOCUSED ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CRITICAL COMPONENT OF HIGH SPEED OPTOELECTRONIC SWITCHES AND SWITCHING NETWORKS. OUR CONCEPT IS BASED UPON USING TOTAL INTERNAL REFLECTION IN A GAAS/A1GAAS MATERIAL SYSTEM. THIS CONCEPT PROMISES VERY HIGH SPEED BECAUSE THE TECHNIQUE MINIMIZES ELECTRODE AREA, WHICH REDUCES CAPACITANCE. IN ADDITION THIS SWITCH CAN BE MADE VERY SMALL, HAVE LOW DRIVE POWER AND IS SCALEABLE TO LARGE SWITCHING NETWORKS. THIS CONCEPT IS COMPATIBLE WITH MONOLITHIC INTEGRATING.