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Publication
Journal of Lightwave Technology
Paper
A 4 × 4 Electrooptic Silicon Photonic Switch Fabric with Net Neutral Insertion Loss
Abstract
We present a strictly nonblocking × electrooptic silicon photonic switch fabric with on-chip gain. The switch integrates 12 Mach-Zehnder cells in a 3-stage topology equipped with fast electrooptic phase shifters, and thermooptic phase trimmers. To compensate for the losses of the fabric, a 4-channel GaInAsP/InP semiconductor optical amplifier array is flip-chip attached into an etched cavity in the silicon photonic chip with butt-coupled waveguide interfaces. The chip is wirebonded to a CMOS driver that provides push-pull drive to each elementary Mach-Zehnder cell. We demonstrate an optical switch assembly with net neutral insertion loss in the C-band together with nanosecond-scale reconfiguration time.