Cascadability of large-scale 3-D MEMS-based low-loss photonic cross-connects

• Published in: IEEE photonics technology letters Vol. 17; no. 4; pp. 771 - 773
• Main Authors: Kaman, V., Xuezhe Zheng, Shifu Yuan, Klingshirn, J., Pusarla, C., Helkey, R.J., Jerphagnon, O., Bowers, J.E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.04.2005; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Dubnium; Large-scale systems; Microelectromechanical devices; Microelectromechanical systems; Noise levels; Optical communication; Optical crosstalk; optical fiber communication; Optical fiber networks; Optical fiber polarization; Optical filters; Optical losses; Optical receivers; Optical signal processing; Optical switching; Optical transmitters; photonic switching systems; Photonics; Repeaters; Switches; wavelength-division multiplexing; Wavelengths
• ISSN: 1041-1135; 1941-0174
• DOI: 10.1109/LPT.2005.843654

The performance of cascaded low-loss (<3.5 dB) 256/spl times/256 three-dimensional microelectromechanical system (3-D MEMS) photonic cross-connects (PXCs) is experimentally investigated in a recirculating loop. After 60 transitions through the PXC, a power penalty of 1.7 dB is observed, which is attributed to the accumulation of the low polarization-dependent loss in the optical switch. The use of 3-D MEMS PXCs as a wavelength-selective switch (WSPXC) for transparent all-optical networks is also demonstrated. Measured Q-factors for all 16 100-GHz-spaced wavelengths at 10 Gb/s over eight spans of 75-km single-mode fiber and eight transitions through the WSPXC nodes are better than 17 dB.