Abstract

In recent years, all-optical switching techniques have shown enormous potential for performing key networking functions, using fiber and semiconductor devices.¹ In parallel with these advances we have been developing practical solutions to optical pulse delay line technology. Such technology has numerous applications in, for example, multiplexing (low-speed) data streams to ultrafast rates (>100 Gbit/s), coding optical packets in ultrafast self-routing networks, rapid reconfigurable timeslot allocation, and generating arbitrary pulse patterns for the control of optical logic devices.^2–4 This paper describes active delay line devices constructed using hybrid semiconductor/passive optical waveguide technology. The application of these devices to derivation of a timing reference pulse and all-optical header recognition and self-routing of ultrafast packages with multibit addresses has been demonstrated previously.^3,5

© 1996 Optical Society of America