16 x 16 non-blocking silicon optical switch based on electro-optic Mach-Zehnder interferometers

We experimentally demonstrate a 16 x 16 non-blocking optical switch fabric with a footprint of 10.7 x 4.4 mm(2). The switch fabric is composed of 56 2 x 2 silicon Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZIs), with each integrated with a pair of TiN resistive micro-heaters and a p-i-n diode. The average on-chip insertion loss at 1560 nm wavelength is similar to 6.7 dB and similar to 14 dB for the all-cross and all-bar states, respectively, with a loss variation of +/-1 dB over all routing paths. The measured rise/fall time of the switch upon electrical tuning is 3.2/2.5 ns. The switching functionality is verified by transmission of 20 Gb/s on-off keying (OOK) and 50 Gb/s quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) optical signals. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America