BPN751: Large-Scale Silicon Photonic MEMS Switch with Sub-Microsecond Response Time

We developed a new architecture suitable for building a large-scale optical switch with fast response time. We have demonstrated switches with a scale of 240x240 and speed of sub microsecond using our new architecture. The switch architecture consists of an optical crossbar network with MEMS-actuated couplers and is implemented on a silicon photonics platform. To our knowledge this is the largest monolithic switch, and the largest silicon photonic integrated circuit, reported to date. The passive matrix architecture of our switch is fundamentally more scalable than that of multistage switches. We are currently working electrical packaging, optical packaging and radix scaling up to 1000x1000.

Project temporarily suspended on 08/28/2023.