Silicon Non-Blocking 4 × 4 Optical Switch Chip Integrated with Both Thermal and Electro-Optic Tuners

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate an integrated strictly non-blocking silicon 4 × 4 optical switch chip that can be operated in both thermo-optic (TO) and electro-optic (EO) switching modes. It is based on the double-layer network (DLN) architecture and consists of twelve 2 × 2 Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) switch elements. TO phase shifters based on TiN microheaters and EO phase shifters based on p-i-n diodes are embedded in both waveguide arms of the MZI elements. The power consumption for TO and EO switching is 34 mW/π and 7 mW/π, respectively. The on-chip insertion losses are 1.74 ± 0.59 dB and 3.79 dB ± 1.32 dB for TO and EO switching, respectively. Due to the merits of the DLN architecture and the optimized performance of the switch elements, the chip possesses low crosstalk of -29.1 dB and -19.4 dB for TO and EO switching, respectively. Quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) optical signals with a data rate of 64 Gb/s are transmitted through the switch with no observable deteriorations. Such an optical switch is a promising candidate for both optical circuit switching and optical packet switching for a variety of applications.