Search

A high-speed/large-scale architecture, 3D Micro Optical Switching System (3D-MOSS), is proposed. A switching network is divided into sub-network blocks, followed by stacking them to construct a multi-layer structure. The inter-block connection is replaced with short-distance vertical optical wiring, that is, optical z-connection. 3D-MOSS, in contrast with conventional planar structures, reduces waveguide cross points, wiring length, and system size. Expected applications are Switching for Fiber Communications, Reconfigurable 3D Micro Optoelectronic System, and so on. 3D-MOSS consists of OE-films, in which thin-film high-speed micro optical switches are embedded. BPM calculation shows that Variable Well Optical Integrated Circuit (VWOIC), with matrix rectangular electrodes or prism-shaped electrodes on an electro-optic slab waveguide, is viable for the optical switch. BPM/FDTD coupled simulation demonstrates an optical z-connection with 2dB loss in a 4-micrometers -width-waveguide- based network. Resource/cost-saving heterogeneous device integration process, SORT, is briefly described.

The Y-branch waveguide is one of the basic components of optical circuits in the network and computer devices. Considering the high-density integration of optical circuits, a wide angle Y-branch waveguide, which is a small waveguide, is highly desired. Authors had been prosed a new Y-branch waveguide with reflecting surface to achieve low- los and wide branch angel> Also we had shown the successful results of low-loss characteristics and the large tolerance to the fabrication error by numerical analyses. In this paper, we evaluate the loss characteristic and the stability of branching ratio of proposed Y-branch optical waveguide with reflecting surface from experimental results. The proposed model is fabricated by UV-curing method and PMMA resin because of its transparency and ease of fabrication. In these experiments, successful results, such as low-loss, wide-angle abilities and availability of variable branching ratio were obtained. In all experiment and numerical analyses, we assume that the multi-mode waveguide is used in optical circuits considering the optimum connections to the VCSEL.

Recently, optical waveguides implementation on the substrate has been developed due to the requirement for large capacity and high-speed transmission. Considering that an optical circuit on the substrate must be assembled in a limited space, the integration of the circuit is one of the most important issues for the design of the optical circuits. In optical circuits, a Y-branch waveguide is a basic element of circuits and the length of the Y-branch waveguide depends on its branch angle. To achieve the high density integration of optical circuits, a wide angle Y-branch module, which is a small module, is highly desired. In this paper, we propose a new Y-branch waveguide using reflection at the inclined side-wall of the waveguide. The results of the numerical analysis show the efficiency of the proposed Y-branch waveguide, namely low-los and wide branching, in optical waveguide. Moreover, this paper also discuss that the proposed model is tolerable to the fabrication error comparing to the conventional Y-branch waveguide.

In this study we analyze the optical propagation properties due to the roughness of side walls in waveguides (core regions), which is inherent in the patterning processes such as RIE, UV curing and so on. In the analysis we evaluate the increase in loss due to the side-wall roughness, where the width of waveguides vary sinusoidally and randomly in the models. As a parameter, we pay attention to the relative refractive index different between the core and clad regions. The Finite-Difference Beam Propagation Method is used in the simulation. It is found that the increase in loss depends on the period varied in waveguides and the maximum value of loss is about 0.2 dB/cm in present conditions. However the large value of loss more than 1 dB/cm appears noticeably in some specific periods, and this is discussed using the Brillouin diagram.© (2000) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.