Design and Preliminary Implementation of an N $\times$ N Diffractive All-Optical Fiber Optic Switch

Abstract

We have demonstrated a diffraction-based nonblocking, scalable N × N optical switch employing a digital micromirror display (DMD) with 12 μs switching speed, performing 100 times faster than the currently available technology. The distributed nature of diffraction makes this switch more robust than one-to-one reflective systems where a single mirror failure incapacitates an entire connection. We thereby address a key bottleneck in data centers and optical aggregation networks by decreasing circuit-switching speed and allowing for facile port count scalability.