Abstract

This paper describes a cross-bar switchboard for optical fibers. The switchboard is all optical, solid state (i.e. no moving parts), rugged, wide temperature, fast (2µsec), non-blocking, latching (i.e non-volatile), requires no initial polarization, is capable of switching both digital and analogue signals, and is theoretically capable of handling very large numbers of inputs and outputs in a single stage. The light is deflected from input fiber to any output fiber by a stripe domain deflection element, so there are no splitting losses; the efficiency does not decrease as more outputs fibers are added.

© 1987 Optical Society of America