Abstract

A 2 × 2 photonic switching node was demonstrated that switched two 140 Mbps extended quality television signals with error-free performance, using discrete optical components, and extensible arrays of symmetric self-electro-optic-effect device (S-SEED) differential modulators and detectors.¹ The switch consisted of two electronically controlled differential GaAs quantum well modulator arrays, one differential GaAs quantum well detector array, and a space invariant interconnection. Laser diodes were used for the optical interconnections. Each differential modulator (detector) consisted of two serially connected MQW diodes (i.e., a symmetric SEED) with the modulating voltage applied to (modulated current detected from) a center tap between the diodes. Two S-SEED cells were used within each 2 × 4 array spaced on a 30 × 40-μm pitch with two 10-μm round windows for each MQW diode. The system was tolerant to laser noise and remained aligned and stable. We show switch performance (speed, cross-talk, BER, energy & power dissipation) and describe possible extensions of this system for backplane (board-to-board) interconnection.

© 1990 Optical Society of America