Abstract

An integrated acousto-optic implementation of optical fiber interconnection is presented. This space division switching configuration can permute up to a dozen single-mode fiber inputs to outputs without having the fan-in and fan-out losses suffered by other 3D optical interconnection techniques. An innovative acousto-optic interaction geometry is utilized to optimize throughput and minimize cross talk. The switching system permits the transmission of arbitrary format high bandwidth signals by avoiding any optical-electronic conversion. The reconfiguration time is equal to the aperture time of the Bragg cell, which is on the order of a few microseconds.

© 1992 Optical Society of America