MxN optical matrix switch using polymer thermo-optic total-internal-reflection switches

We have developed a fully non-blocking optical matrix switch using the polymer thermo-optic TIR (total-internal-reflection) switch as a unit switching element. The TIR switch consists of two multimode polymer optical waveguides crossing each other and a heater on the crossing region. The fabricated 2×2, 4×4 and 8×8 optical matrix switch chips showed excellent optical properties. The insertion losses were less than about 2.5 dB and 4.5 dB for the 4×4 and 8×8 matrix switches, respectively. The switching isolation in the turned-off state was higher than 40 dB, the switching time was about 3 ms, and the electrical power consumption for each switching element could be below 30 mW. To our knowledge, our optical matrix switch has the simplest structure and can be mass-produced very easily and inexpensively.