An Integrated High-Speed 1X4 Digital Y-Branch Switch Array with Passive Taper Fanouts for Fiber Interconnection

We demonstrate an integrated high-speed 1X4 switch array on InP-substrate using digital Y-branch switch elements with a bandwidth of 8 GHz. This type of switch array is most desirable for Optical Time Division Multiplexing (OTDM) and demultiplexing of high-speed data at OC- 192 rates over a wide optical bandwidth. The isolation between channels is 18 dB which may be improved by optimizing the switch design and fabrication techniques. The size of the switch array is 1.5mm X 5.0mm and the total insertion loss is 20 dB.