Military Application Qualifiable Lossless Fiberoptic Switch

Photonwares and Northwestern University propose to meet the goals of the US Air Force through realization of a revolutionary fiber optical switch. The switch has breakthrough attributes including near-lossless transmission and high optical power handling that have not been possible before.   Our proposed program facilitates a critical technology transformation into the next generation quantum platform as well as to upgrading the present airborne sensor systems. The new class of fiber optical switch will become an enabling component to reduce system size, mass, and power requirements, as well as operational cost while improving overall architecture performance. The successful development of this new class of optical switches of little loss and high optical power handling will substantially benefit Air Force airborne sensor and communication systems with increased reliability and reduced power consumption.  The Phase I effort will result in a prototype demonstration that supports performance claims and a Phase II plan that formulates a pathway to a space qualification with potential flight experiments in Phase III.  According to theoretical simulations, a pair of single-mode fibers can achieve lossless coupling, if the gap is kept smaller and filled with an index-matching fluid.  However, practically achieving this level of high precision alignment between the two fibers has not been possible before. Photonwares has recently developed a breakthrough technology that is capable of aligning two fiber ends with extraordinary precision at very low cost. The innovation is based on an approach with a new form of micro-mechanical systems (MEMS).  Our novel micro-fabricated structure automatically aligns a pair of fiber ends perfectly.  In this program, we propose to develop a highly innovative near lossless fiber optical switch (<0.002dB) for both single-mode and multimode.