Large-Scale Silicon Photonic Switches

Abstract

Silicon photonic micro-electro-mechanical-system (MEMS) offers unique advantage for reconfigurable circuits with low loss and low power consumption. The switching element with MEMS-actuated vertical adiabatic couplers has nearly zero loss in the BAR state, enable the switch to scale favorably in crossbar geometry without cumulative loss. In this talk, we review the current state of the art of silicon photonic switches, with emphasis on silicon photonic MEMS switches.