An Ultra-Compact 4 × 4 and 8 × 8 Optical Switch Based on Dual-Microring Resonators

Abstract

We demonstrate an optical switch array based on the topology of Butterfly by using dual-microring resonators which can be used in the ultra-compact network. The proposed switch is composed of 12 basic switch elements tuned by thermo-optic (TO) effect, which can build links freely without any blocking. Due to the advantages of microring resonators, the footprint switch array is smaller than 0.2 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> . The optical structure can complete 4- and 8-ports signal routing. It shows a large bandwidth over 50GHz, thereby performing well under condition of high-speed data transmission.