A PHASED-ARRAY OPTICAL-SCANNING (PHAROS) DEVICE USED AS A 1-TO-9 WAY SWITCH

A novel optical switch is demonstrated which uses a phased array of 30 closely spaced, individually addressed electrooptic AlGaAs-GaAs waveguides to focus and steer a light beam under electronic control in a planar output waveguide. A small and potentially very high speed 1-to-9 way optical switch (with - 15 dB of crosstalk) was made by placing an array of 9 output waveguides at different positions in a focal plan 1 mm from the end of the electrooptic array.