HIGH-PERFORMANCE NXN OPTICAL MATRIX SWITCH USING DOUBLE-SIZE BUTTERFLY NETWORK OF 2X2 SWITCHING UNITS

摘要

An NxN optical waveguide matrix switch using double-size butterfly network of2x2switching units is proposed in this invention. In the NxN matrix switches, thecomplexity,the power consumption, the wavelength sensitivity, the insertion loss, and theblockingare main problems. In this invention, the NxN optical waveguide matrix switchuses adouble size butterfly.network where one size of the butterfly network isspecially used forswitching operations and the other one for balancing and testing the opticaloutputs at theOFF-state. So, not only can nonblocking degree be met, but also both thenumbers ofswitching units and switching stages can be decreased. Especially in the large-scale NxNmatrix switches, this advantage becomes more apparent. As a result, thecomplexity, theinsertion loss and the power consumption can be significantly reduced. If thewavelengthsensitive switching units are used in this type of devices, at the differentoperation levels,the switching units are designed at different central wavelengths to uniformlycover thewhole wavelength range. So, the wavelength sensitivity of the whole device canbedepressed. Therefore, the final performance of NxN optical matrix switchbecomes lowinsertion loss, wavelength insensitive and nonblocking.