Optical waveguides – With optical coupler – Switch
Patent
1997-03-11
1999-10-19
Palmer, Phan T. H.
Optical waveguides
With optical coupler
Switch
385126, 385122, G02B 626
Patent
active
059701862
ABSTRACT:
A hybrid digital electro-optic switch has core and/or cladding areas that contain at least two different materials which undergo a change in their refractive index when an electric field is applied. One of the two different materials used in core regions, for example, has a change in refractive index that is less than the change in refractive index for the other material when the materials are exposed to the same electric field. A hybrid digital electro-optic switch functions by modulating the propagation constants of the eigenmodes of the switch with a voltage-induced refractive-index change, so that the propagation constants of the two materials are equal either in the presence or absence of the electric field. These electro-optic modulations change the evanescent coupling between the waveguides of the waveguide regions of the switch and transfer an optical signal that was input into one of the waveguides to a coupled waveguide. Compared to earlier digital electro-optic switch designs, the new switch has lower switching voltage, smaller device size, a sharper optical signal transfer, and wider manufacturing and use tolerances, and the switch can use a wide array of materials in its construction. The new switch can also be integrated with both the microstrip and coplanar traveling wave electrodes for very high speed photonic switching applications.
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Kenney John T.
Sherman Richard D.
Lightwave Microsystems Corporation
Palmer Phan T. H.
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