MEMS OPTICAL SWITCHES
CHAPTER-1
INTRODUCTION
MEMS technology in optical cross connect switches (OXC) has the most promising application. In todays network the OXC switches rely on electronic cores. In this type the switches consists of OEO design (optical- electrical-optical) in which all the input signals are converted into electronic signals after they are demultiplexed by demultiplexers. These target at the desired output & when they reach the target they are then converted back to optical signals by using them to modulate lasers & then the resulting optical signals are multiplexed by optical multiplexers onto the outlet optical fiber. As the port count and data rates increase it becomes difficult for the electronic switch fabrics to meet future demands. Hence intensive research is done in developing new optical switching technologies to replace electronic cores. MEMS optical switches manipulate data network at the optical level. In short we can say that path of light/ wavelength from the input is made to travel to desired output by reflection/ actuation of micro mirror. The necessary control on this functioning is done by control circuitry. The fabrication technique used to construct these switches, allow integration of micro optics, micro actuators, complex micro mechanical structures, & possibly micro electronics on the same substrate to realize integrated micro system.
1.1 OPTICAL SWITCHING
The main attraction of optical switching is that it enables routing of optical data signals without the need for conversion to electrical signals, and therefore is independent of data rate and data protocol. Applications of optical switching include protection and restoration in optical networks, bandwidth provisioning, wavelength routing, and network performance monitoring. One of the key applications is optical crossconnects, which are the basic elements for routing optical signals in an optical network or system. Often the crossconnect is required to be strictly nonblocking, which means that any input can be switched to any output, and if a new connection is made, existing connections are not affected. In blocking switches some connections cannot be established for certain choices of input and output ports. Most current optical crossconnects in fact use an electrical core for switching (sometimes referred to as OEO switching) where the optical signals are first converted to electrical signals, which are then switched by electrical means and finally converted back to
Dept. of ECE,RLJIT Page 1 2010-2011
MEMS OPTICAL SWITCHES
optical signals. This solution is not future-proof since when the data rate increases, the expensive transceivers and electrical switch core have to be replaced. All-optical crossconnects (sometimes referred to as OOO crossconnects) are much more attractive because of the avoidance of the conversion stages, and because the core switch is independent of data rate and data protocol, making the crossconnect ready for future data rate upgrades. Since there is no need for lots of expensive and power-hungry high-speed electronics, transmitters, and receivers, the system becomes less expensive; in addition, the reduction of complexity improves reliability and reduces the footprint of the OOO crossconnect compared to OEO solutions. Besides OOO and OEO switches there are also opaque optical crossconnects (OEOEO) as a compromise between OEO and OOO approaches. The optical signal is here converted into electrical signals and then again to optical. The signals are switched in the optical domain and then converted to electrical and finally back to optical signals. This option may still improve the performance of the crossconnect since the optical switch core doesnt have the bandwidth limitations and power consumption of an electrical switch core. Opaque optical crossconnects allow the options of wavelength conversion, combination with an electrical switch core, quality of service monitoring, and signal regeneration, all within the crossconnect switch. But since there are OE and EO conversions, the data rate and data format transparency is lost. Within this article we only discuss pure all-optical switches.
1.2 ALL-OPTICAL SPACE SWITCH TECHNOLOGIES
Opto-mechanical technology was the first commercially available for optical switching. It is based on beam expanding collimators and electromagnetically (e.g., stepper motor or solenoid) actuated mirrors, prisms, or collimators. Opto-mechanical switches with very low insertion loss (< 1 dB) are currently available from several vendors. The switch configurations are limited to 1 2 and 2 2 port sizes. Larger port counts can only be obtained by combining several 1 2 or 2 2 switches, but this increases cost and degrades performance. Optomechanical switches are mainly used in fiber protection and very low port count wavelength add-drop applications.
Dept. of ECE,RLJIT
Page 2
2010-2011
