A 4×4 electrooptic silicon photonic switch fabric with net neutral insertion loss

Journal Article · 04 October 2019 · Journal of Lightwave Technology

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/JLT.2019.2945678 · OSTI ID:1569473

Dupuis, Nicolas  ^[1]; Doany, Fuad ^[2]; Budd, Russell A. ^[3]; Schares, Laurent ^[4]; Baks, Christian W. ^[3]; Kuchta, Daniel M. ^[4]; Hirokawa, Takako ^[5]; Lee, Benjamin G.  ^[3]

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1. IBM T.J. Watson research center, Yorktown Heights, NY (United States). Optical Networking and Computing Subsystems; IBM Research
2. IBM T.J. Watson research center, Yorktown Heights, NY (United States). Optical Link and System Design
3. IBM T.J. Watson research center, Yorktown Heights, NY (United States)
4. IBM T.J. Watson research center, Yorktown Heights, NY (United States). Optical Networking and Computing Subsystems
5. Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States). Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering

We present a strictly nonblocking 4×4 electrooptic silicon photonic switch fabric with on-chip gain. The switch integrates 12 Mach-Zehnder cells in a 3-stage topology equipped with fast electrooptic phase shifters, and thermooptic phase trimmers. To compensate for the losses of the fabric, a 4-channel GaInAsP/InP semiconductor optical amplifier array is flip-chip attached into an etched cavity in the silicon photonic chip with butt-coupled waveguide interfaces. The chip is wirebonded to a CMOS driver that provides push-pull drive to each elementary Mach-Zehnder cell. We demonstrate an optical switch assembly with net neutral insertion loss in the C-band together with nanosecond-scale reconfiguration time.

• Research Organization: IBM T.J. Watson research center, Yorktown Heights, NY (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)
• Grant/Contract Number: AR0000844
• OSTI ID: 1569473
• Report Number(s): DOE-IBM-0844-009
• Journal Information: Journal of Lightwave Technology, Journal Name: Journal of Lightwave Technology Journal Issue: none Vol. none; ISSN 0733-8724
• Publisher: IEEECopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English