About cookies on this site Our websites require some cookies to function properly (required). In addition, other cookies may be used with your consent to analyze site usage, improve the user experience and for advertising. For more information, please review your options. By visiting our website, you agree to our processing of information as described in IBM’sprivacy statement. To provide a smooth navigation, your cookie preferences will be shared across the IBM web domains listed here.
Publication
Optics Express
Paper
Drive-noise-tolerant broadband silicon electro-optic switch
Abstract
We report a broadband digital electro-optical switch, based upon a multi-stage Mach-Zehnder lattice design in silicon-on-insulator. A digital switching response is demonstrated, engineered through apodization of the coupling coefficients between stages. The digital switching behavior results in crosstalk lower than -15 dB for drive-voltage noise levels in excess of 300 mVpp, which exceeds the noise tolerance of a conventional single-stage Mach-Zehnder switch by more than six-fold. In addition, the digital design enables a larger maximum 'on'-state extinction (below -26 dB) and lower 'on'-state free-carrier-induced insertion loss (less than 0.45 dB) than that of the single-stage switch. The noise-tolerant, low-crosstalk switch can thus play a key role within CMOS-integrated reconfigurable optical networks operating under noisy on-chip conditions. ©2011 Optical Society of America.