Optical switch compatible with wavelength division multiplexing and mode division multiplexing for photonic networks-on-chip

We propose a 2 x 2 multimode optical switch, which is composed of two mode demultiplexers, n 2 x 2 single-mode optical switches where n is the number of the supported spatial modes, and two mode multiplexers. As a proof of concept, asymmetric directional couplers are employed to construct the mode multiplexers and de-multiplexers, balanced Mach-Zehnder interferometer is utilized to construct the 2 x 2 single-mode optical switches. The fabricated silicon 2 x 2 multimode optical switch has a broad optical bandwidth and can support four spatial modes. The link-crosstalk for all four modes is smaller than -18.8 dB. The inter-mode crosstalk for the same optical link is less than -22.1 dB. 40 Gbps data transmission is performed for all spatial modes and all optical links. The power penalties for the error-free switching (BER<10(-9)) at 25 Gbps are less than 1.8 dB for all channels at the wavelength of 1550 nm. The power consumption of the device is 117.9 mW in the "cross" state and 116.2 mW in the "bar" state. The switching time is about 21 mu s. This work enables large-capacity multimode photonic networks-on-chip. (C) 2017 Optical Society of America