REARRANGEABLE NONBLOCKING POLYMER WAVE-GUIDE THERMOOPTIC 4X4 SWITCHING MATRIX WITH LOW-POWER CONSUMPTION AT 1.55 MU-M

A rearrangeable nonblocking polymer waveguide thermo-optic 4x4 directional-coupler-type switching matrix with low power consumption operating at 1.55 mu m is demonstrated for the First time. The rearrangeable nonblocking 4x4 matrix consists of eight 2x2 switches. The power consumption of each switching element is 30mW. A fibre-to-fibre insertion loss of less than 9dB was measured and the polarisation sensitivity is less than 0.5dB. The crosstalk was found to be between -17.5 and -32.5dB for different switching configurations. The response time of the device is less than 1ms.