High bandwidth, compact N×N optical switch

Details High bandwidth, compact N×N optical switch High bandwidth, compact N×N optical switch

2000-05-23

2003-04-15

Ullah, Akm E. (Department: 2874)

Optical waveguides

With optical coupler

Input/output coupler

C385S016000, C385S093000, C359S210100, C359S813000, C359S821000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06549703

ABSTRACT:

TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to laser scanning and switching in arrays having large port counts.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Currently, most optical switching is either done by converting the signals into electrical signals, switching, and then back to optical signals or by using MEMS mirrors, or by optoelectronic switches fabricated on lithium niobate. Each of these approaches is either expensive, bulky or complex. 16×16 switches have been constructed with small volumes, however, the loss was high, and the approach does not scale to larger switch ports. There have been approaches proposed that reduce the scaling from N{circumflex over ( )}2 to NLOG
2
(N). However, the trade was an extremely large size: a few meters long for a 64×64.
A common configuration for an optical switch is N input fiber ports and N output fiber ports where N is an integer. This configuration is referred to as an N×N optical switch, and it is constructed of approximately N{circumflex over ( )}2 individual (1×2) switches. For example, a 16×16 has 16 input fibers and 16 output fibers. The problem with the standard approach is that the number of switches increases rapidly as the number of ports, N is increased. The number of switches scales as N{circumflex over ( )}2, and the complexity of the N×N switch increases very rapidly. This has prevented large scale, low loss N×N switches from being manufacturable in a small package. Commercially available switches with a size of 32×32 or larger, are large, rack mounted systems. 16×16 switches have been fabricated using integrated optical approaches such as lithium niobate or glass, however they have relatively high loss, and it is not feasible to scale them to larger size with low loss.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method and a device that allows for switching N by N optical paths, each path being non-blocking; an optical switch where the various optical beams are steered by movement of their corresponding lenses. An optical switch is much more compact, lighter and dissipates less power compared to an electrical switch. The optical switch also can route orders of magnitude higher data rate signals. Moreover, all optical-to-optical switches currently under development employ reflective surfaces, such as MEMS micro-mirrors. In contrast, the present invention uses a refractive approach, where the laser beam is scanned using moving lenses.
The present switch has a much improved scalability compared to other approaches. The number of individual switches required scales linearly in the port count N. This permits an extremely large port count with N×N exceeding 1000×1000.


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“Speeding up the Fiber-Optic Highway,” The New York Times Oct. 28, 1999, p. D13, by Lisa Guernsey.

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