8X8 SYMMETRICAL NONBLOCKING INTEGRATED ACOUSTOOPTIC SPACE SWITCH MODULE ON LINBO3

An 8 x 8 symmetric nonblocking integrated acoustooptic space switch module has been realized on a Y-cut LiNbO3 substrate, 1.0 x 10.0 x 37.0 mm3 in size. The switch module consists of a new hybrid beam expanding-collimating lens, a large aperture focusing lens, and a pair of four-element tilted surface acoustic wave (SAW) transducer arrays in a titanium-in-diffused channel-planar-channel composite waveguide. Experimental results of point-to-point nonblocking switching at the optical wavelength of 0.6328-mu-m, including an average crosstalk of -12.2 dB, optical switching efficiency of 25% at 125 mW RF drive power, carrier frequency increment of 13.5 MHz for switching between adjacent output channels and reconfiguration time of 0.4-mu-s have been obtained. In addition to strictly nonblocking point-to-point switching, the switch module can be easily reconfigured to perform multicast and multipoint-to-point switching.