Analysis of signal degradation in an integrated active crossbar switch

摘要

Abstract: One of the most desirable features for a modern systems architecture is reconfigurability. It facilitates the sharing of various processing and memory resources among many different subsystems, thereby reducing the need for each subsystem to duplicate these resources. Reducing duplication also reduces size, weight, power consumption, and cost; all important considerations, especially in modern military systems. Sensor data requires very-wide- bandwidth, point-to-point connections, which are easily provided by fiber optics with good noise immunity, but the switching of such wide-bandwidth signals is problematic because electrical switches have both limited bandwidth and limited switching times. A wide- bandwidth, reconfigurable optical switch is required that overcomes coupling and splitting losses experienced by the optical signal passing through the switch so that sufficient signal- fidelity is maintained. In this paper, we investigate an integrated, active (i.e. amplifying) photonic crossbar switch to determine the signal degradation incurred for intensity modulation and direct detection using an NRZ data format and an ideal, matched-filter receiver. Various device configurations are analyzed in order to determine which produces the smallest degradation of the signal-to-noise ratio.!5