Abstract

An integrated acousto optic (AO) implementation of an optical crossbar for fiber-network systems is presented.^1,2 This space-division switching configuration can permute as many as 12 single-mode fiber inputs to outputs without having fan-in and fan-out losses that plague other passive 3D optical-interconnection techniques.³ Other routing functions of a crossbar, such as broadcast and fan-in, can also be performed by simply changing the driving signals. The bidirectional switching system permits the transmission of signals of arbitrary formats and band- widths as wide as 100 GHz by avoiding any optical —electronic conversion. The reconfiguration time is limited by the aperture time of the AO Bragg cell, which is of the order of a few microseconds.

© 1994 Optical Society of America