Design and fabrication of a high-density 2D fiber array for holographic switching applications

Holographic two-dimensional beam steering using a pixel-lated spatial light modulator (SLM) is a flexible and accurate technique to implement advanced space-switching, building-block functions for optical network nodes. We present the design of a specific fiber array for large-capacity holographic switches. We use two-dimensional and irregular array topology to optimize the space-bandwidth product of the SLM and to avoid crosstalk due to the coupling of higher diffraction orders. The fiber-array module is integrated by inserting the fibres through a pair of etched silicon plates aligned and fixed using a steel mount. The device is tested through near-field and fiber-to-fiber free space coupling tests. An average fiber-to-fiber insertion loss of 1 dB is achieved for a prototype containing 64 fibers. (C) 2008 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.