Optical switching device

US6366716B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• Nortel Networks Limited · CA

Inventor

• Alan Graves · Gatineau, CA

Key dates

• Filing date: Jun 15, 2000
• Grant date: Apr 2, 2002
• Expiry date: Nov 4, 2020

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H04Q2011/0039
• WIPO field: Telecommunications
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A single Hybrid Optical Integrated Circuit that contains an optical switch having six groups of ports using micro-electron mechanical or six-port MEMS for short, amplifiers, laser pumps (or inputs from laser pumps) in a single package. This is done either by providing alignment features between the MEMS devices and the amplifier silicon substrate, or by building both on a common silicon substrate. The optical switching device provides the expansion capability and add/drop functionality desired via the optical expansion input and output ports and the optical inter-matrix input and output ports, respectively. Additionally, since these separate matrices of divertors are used to selectively couple the ports of the device, less divertors are required than if one large matrix of divertors were used. Further, the optical path length, a major issue in the design of such devices, is less in this structure than it would be in a single MEMS crosspoint providing a similar function. The six-port arrangement facilitates mechanical fabrication compared to eight-port arrangements. The resultant module can be used to implement the complete optical path for one plane of a wavelength-plane optical sw…