8 x 8 optical switch matrix using generalized Mach-Zehnder interferometers

Abstract

We report an 8/spl times/8 strictly nonblocking optical cross connect (OXC) using multimode imaging (MMI)-based generalized Mach-Zehnder (MZ) interferometers realized in the silica-on-silicon planar waveguide system. Employing a router-selector architecture, this MMI-MZ OXC design results in a significantly smaller device than conventional directional-coupler based implementations. An average insertion loss of 6 dB and crosstalk of -34 dB, is demonstrated for the 8/spl times/8 OXC.