Demonstration of the Feasibility of Large Port Count Optical Switching Using a Hybrid MZI-SOA Switch Module in a Recirculating Loop

For the first time, the feasibility of large port count nanosecond reconfiguration time optical switches is demonstrated using a novel hybrid approach, where Mach-Zehnder interferometric (MZI) switches provide low loss high speed routing with short semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) being integrated to enhance extinction. By repeatedly passing signals through a monolithic hybrid dilated 22 switch module in a recirculating loop, the potential performance of high port count switches using the hybrid approach is demonstrated. Experimentally, a single pass switch penalty of only 0.1 dB is demonstrated for the 22 module, while even after 7 passes through the switch, equivalent to a 128x128 router, a penalty of only 2.4dB is recorded at a data rate of 10Gb/s. © 2014 Optical Society of America OCIS Codes: (130.0250) Optoelectronics, (130.4815) Optical switching devices