WO1998050823A1 - Optical switch matrix comprising an improved lead pattern - Google Patents
Optical switch matrix comprising an improved lead pattern Download PDFInfo
- Publication number
- WO1998050823A1 WO1998050823A1 PCT/EP1998/002588 EP9802588W WO9850823A1 WO 1998050823 A1 WO1998050823 A1 WO 1998050823A1 EP 9802588 W EP9802588 W EP 9802588W WO 9850823 A1 WO9850823 A1 WO 9850823A1
- Authority
- WO
- WIPO (PCT)
- Prior art keywords
- switches
- optical
- leads
- elements
- lead pattern
- Prior art date
Links
Classifications
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G02—OPTICS
- G02F—OPTICAL DEVICES OR ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE CONTROL OF LIGHT BY MODIFICATION OF THE OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF THE MEDIA OF THE ELEMENTS INVOLVED THEREIN; NON-LINEAR OPTICS; FREQUENCY-CHANGING OF LIGHT; OPTICAL LOGIC ELEMENTS; OPTICAL ANALOGUE/DIGITAL CONVERTERS
- G02F1/00—Devices or arrangements for the control of the intensity, colour, phase, polarisation or direction of light arriving from an independent light source, e.g. switching, gating or modulating; Non-linear optics
- G02F1/29—Devices or arrangements for the control of the intensity, colour, phase, polarisation or direction of light arriving from an independent light source, e.g. switching, gating or modulating; Non-linear optics for the control of the position or the direction of light beams, i.e. deflection
- G02F1/31—Digital deflection, i.e. optical switching
- G02F1/313—Digital deflection, i.e. optical switching in an optical waveguide structure
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G02—OPTICS
- G02F—OPTICAL DEVICES OR ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE CONTROL OF LIGHT BY MODIFICATION OF THE OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF THE MEDIA OF THE ELEMENTS INVOLVED THEREIN; NON-LINEAR OPTICS; FREQUENCY-CHANGING OF LIGHT; OPTICAL LOGIC ELEMENTS; OPTICAL ANALOGUE/DIGITAL CONVERTERS
- G02F1/00—Devices or arrangements for the control of the intensity, colour, phase, polarisation or direction of light arriving from an independent light source, e.g. switching, gating or modulating; Non-linear optics
- G02F1/01—Devices or arrangements for the control of the intensity, colour, phase, polarisation or direction of light arriving from an independent light source, e.g. switching, gating or modulating; Non-linear optics for the control of the intensity, phase, polarisation or colour
- G02F1/0147—Devices or arrangements for the control of the intensity, colour, phase, polarisation or direction of light arriving from an independent light source, e.g. switching, gating or modulating; Non-linear optics for the control of the intensity, phase, polarisation or colour based on thermo-optic effects
Definitions
- the invention pertains to an optical device comprising a (preferably symmetrical or substantially symmetrical) cascade of optical switches, elements (numeral 5 in the Figure) for driving the switches, bond pads (6) for connecting the device to peripheral equipment, and leads (7) for electrically connecting the elements to the bond pads.
- Such an optical device is known from W.H.G. Horsthuis et al., "Packaged Polymeric 1x8 Digital Optical Switches," Proceedings European Conference on Optical Communication '95, pp. 1059-1062.
- This publication concerns a solid-state optical 1x8 switch consisting of a 3-staged cascade of 7 1x2 switches.
- Each of the switches comprises two heater elements for driving the switches.
- the heater elements are connected to bond pads by means of leads.
- the bond pads are connected to the package of the switch, which has been designed to comprise a standard (48-pin) DIP connector, allowing direct Printed Circuit Board (PCB) mounting of the component.
- PCB Printed Circuit Board
- the leads must be electrically isolated from one another and the lead pattern has been designed accordingly ( Figure 2 of W.H.G. Horsthuis et al.).
- Figure 2 of W.H.G. Horsthuis et al. a constant need exists for size reduction without impairing the high quality (in terms of crosstalk, extinction, reliability, etc.) of the optical device.
- a reduction of the variation in length of the leads is desirable, since the electrical resistance of the leads is commensurate with this length. Reduction of the length-variation will result in a reduction of the variation, e.g., in the voltage or temperature of the elements for driving the switches.
- This object is achieved in the optical devices described in the first paragraph of this application, in which devices, in top view, at least part of most of the leads (7) (and preferably of each lead (7)) runs both substantially parallel to at least one adjacent lead (7) and obliquely with respect to the central longitudinal axis (8) of the device.
- the size of the lead pattern and hence the size of the device comprising the lead pattern, can be reduced by more than 25%, in some instances even by more than 40%. Further, the variation in length of the leads can be reduced by more than 35%.
- the size reduction also allows manufacturing more components on a single wafer or, especially for very complex structures; a reduction of the design restrictions resulting from a limited wafer size.
- thermo-optical effect can induce large refractive index changes at low drive voltages (e.g., 5V).
- the heat generated in the elements for driving the switches should be sufficient to locally raise the temperature several tens of degrees Celsius and, consequently, a fairly high current is required (after all, for a given drive voltage, the generated heat is proportional to the electrical current).
- heat generation in the leads can be reduced, and power consumption of the device kept low, by using leads with a larger width (that would not fit in a conventional lead pattern) and, consequently, a low electrical resistance.
- the present invention enables the creation of an optimal balance between compactness and power consumption (heat generation) in thermo-optical devices.
- An integrated optical device may be built up, e.g., as follows. Underneath the waveguiding structure there is a support, e.g., a glass or silicon substrate. On the substrate the following successive layers can be identified: a lower cladding layer, a core layer (guiding layer), and an upper cladding layer.
- the cladding material may be glass or a polymeric material. Said cladding layers have an index of refraction lower than that of the core layer.
- the core layer which comprises the actual waveguiding design, may be made of inorganic or polymeric material.
- Polymeric optical devices are preferred. Their production will generally involve applying a solution of the polymer used as the lower cladding to a substrate, e.g., by means of spincoating, followed by evaporating the solvent. Subsequently, the core layer, and the upper cladding layer, can be applied in the same manner. On top of the upper cladding the elements for driving the switches will be placed, e.g., by means of sputtering, chemical vapour deposition, or evaporation and standard lithographic techniques. For fixation and finishing a coating layer may be applied on top of the entire structure, so as to allow better handling of the device.
- a glue layer may be used for fixation, after which the total structure can be finished by placing an object glass on it.
- cross-linkable polymers These are polymers which comprise cross-linkable monomers or polymers which comprise so-called crosslinkers such as polyisocyanates, polyepoxides, etc. This makes it possible to apply polymers on a substrate and cure the polymer, so that a cured polymeric network is formed that does not dissolve when the next layer is provided.
- the elements for driving the switches, the leads, and the bond pads will generally be made of a thin-film electric conductor, usually a thin metal (deposited) film.
- Suitable conductors are Ni/Fe, Ni or Ni/Cr (for thermo- optical devices, the latter two are preferred).
- Other suitable examples are noble metals, (such as gold, platinum, silver and palladium), aluminium, and those materials known as transparent electrodes, e.g., indium tin oxide.
- the leads are plated, so as to decrease electric resistance.
- Advantageous compositions are, for instance, nickel leads (having a thickness of a few hunderd nanometers) with a nickel plating (having a thickness of 3 to 4 micrometers) or nickel leads with a gold plating.
- Devices according to the invention can be used with advantage in optical communications networks of various kinds.
- the optical components either will be directly combined with other optical components such as light sources (laser diodes) or detectors, or they will be coupled to input and output optical fibres, usually glass fibres.
- Preferred embodiments of the devices of the present invention are 1xN and (intergrated) MxP switches (N being an integer equal to or greater than 4, preferably 8, 9, 16, 27, or 32, M and P being integers equal to or greater than 2, preferably 3, 4, 8, 9, 16, 27, or 32) preferably comprising a cascade of 1x2, and/or 1x3 switches, preferably mode-sorting adiabatic Y-junction and ⁇ -junction switches, respectively.
- a cascade of switches comprises switches (e.g. 1x2 and/or 2x1 switches) arranged in series.
- Such matrices may comprise a large number, e.g., 16 or 32, of the devices according to the present invention.
- the "central longitudinal axis of the device” will usually be the axis of symmetry or a line parallel to the input waveguide channel of a switch in the first stage (1) of the cascade (i.e., the line marked "8" in the Figure).
- the angle between the oblique part of the leads and the central longitudinal axis depend on the specific device. However, angles ranging from 0.5° to 10°, and especially 1° to 4° are preferred.
- the device according to the invention comprises clusters of at least four and preferably at least eight (substantially) parallel and oblique leads, because with such clusters the advantages of the invention are all the more noticeable.
- Electrodes for driving the switches are any means suitable for driving the switches at hand.
- the elements are electrodes capable of generating an electrical field in the switch.
- the elements are, e.g., heaters that transform an electrical current to the required heat.
- 1xN switches and, e.g., “1x2 switches” also comprise Nx1 and 2x1 switches, respectively.
- the Figure shows an unlimitative example of a lead pattern (with an aspect ratio of 1 :10; in reality, the width of each of the leads in constant) for a cascaded 1x16 optical switch comprising 4 stages and 15 1x2 switches (the first stage (1) consists of one 1x2 switch, the second stage (2) consists of two 1x2 switches, the third stage (3) consists of four 1x2 switches, and the fourth stage consists of eight 1x2 switches).
- the fourth stage which stage comprises a huge amount of leads in comparison with the other stages, the overall width of the device including the lead pattern is 7 mm and the length is 61.5 mm, which dimensions are essentially equal to the dimensions of the device according to the above- mentioned publication of W.H.G. Horsthuis et al.
- An additional advantage resides in that comparatively short devices exhibit a comparatively low insertion loss. Further, the difference in the length of the leads is reduced by 35.6%.
Abstract
Description
Claims
Priority Applications (3)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
AU77610/98A AU7761098A (en) | 1997-05-02 | 1998-04-29 | Optical switch matrix comprising an improved lead pattern |
EP98925517A EP0979436A1 (en) | 1997-05-02 | 1998-04-29 | Optical switch matrix comprising an improved lead pattern |
CA002288085A CA2288085A1 (en) | 1997-05-02 | 1998-04-29 | Optical switch matrix comprising an improved lead pattern |
Applications Claiming Priority (2)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
EP97201287.6 | 1997-05-02 | ||
EP97201287 | 1997-05-02 |
Publications (1)
Publication Number | Publication Date |
---|---|
WO1998050823A1 true WO1998050823A1 (en) | 1998-11-12 |
Family
ID=8228279
Family Applications (1)
Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
---|---|---|---|
PCT/EP1998/002588 WO1998050823A1 (en) | 1997-05-02 | 1998-04-29 | Optical switch matrix comprising an improved lead pattern |
Country Status (5)
Country | Link |
---|---|
EP (1) | EP0979436A1 (en) |
AU (1) | AU7761098A (en) |
CA (1) | CA2288085A1 (en) |
TW (1) | TW338802B (en) |
WO (1) | WO1998050823A1 (en) |
-
1997
- 1997-06-30 TW TW086109177A patent/TW338802B/en active
-
1998
- 1998-04-29 WO PCT/EP1998/002588 patent/WO1998050823A1/en not_active Application Discontinuation
- 1998-04-29 EP EP98925517A patent/EP0979436A1/en not_active Ceased
- 1998-04-29 CA CA002288085A patent/CA2288085A1/en not_active Abandoned
- 1998-04-29 AU AU77610/98A patent/AU7761098A/en not_active Abandoned
Non-Patent Citations (4)
Title |
---|
BORREMAN A ET AL: "Polymeric 8X8 digital optical switch Matrix", 22ST EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON OPTICAL COMMUNICATION, ECOC'96, 1996, OSLO, NORWAY, pages 5.59 - 5.62, XP002042074 * |
GRANESTRAND P ET AL: "Pigtailed tree-structured 8*8 LiNbO/sub 3/ switch matrix with 112 digital optical switches", IEEE PHOTONICS TECHNOLOGY LETTERS, JAN. 1994, USA, vol. 6, no. 1, ISSN 1041-1135, pages 71 - 73, XP000563302 * |
HORSTHUIS W ET AL: "Packaged polymeric 1x8 digital optical switches", 21ST EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON OPTICAL COMMUNICATION, ECOC'95, INCLUDING SYMPOSIUM ON PHOTONIC VERSUS ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGIES IN SWITCHING AND INTERCONNECTION. SYMPOSIUM ON BROADBAND NETWORKS FOR VIDEO AND MULTIMEDIA SERVICES (IEEE CAT. NO.95TH8127), PR, 1995, GENT, BELGIUM, IMEC, BELGIUM, pages 1059 - 1062 vol.3, XP002042073 * |
SUZUKI S ET AL: "Planar lightwave circuits based on silica waveguides on silicon", TRANSACTIONS OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS, INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS C-I, MAY 1994, JAPAN, vol. J77C-I, no. 5, pages 184 - 193, XP000539464 * |
Also Published As
Publication number | Publication date |
---|---|
TW338802B (en) | 1998-08-21 |
AU7761098A (en) | 1998-11-27 |
EP0979436A1 (en) | 2000-02-16 |
CA2288085A1 (en) | 1998-11-12 |
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