Jds Uniphase Corporation

Berend Hendriksen

Tsjerk Hans Hoekstra

Albert Borreman

Anthony J Ticknor

The invention pertains to a thermo-optical switch comprising a cascade of 1&times;M optical switches, gates for selectively blocking and unblocking the output paths of the cascaded switch, and means for driving the 1&times;M switches and the gates, which means are arranged to switch a data signal from an input path of the cascaded switch to one of the output paths, wherein the said means are also arranged to switch an unwanted signal, by means of a number of the remaining 1&times;M switches, to at least one of the remaining output paths. In the cascaded switch according to the invention, the generated heat is distributed evenly over the area of the switch and the overall amount of heat generated is reduced.

Thermo-optical cascaded switch comprising gates

The invention pertains to a (cascaded) optical switch at least comprising one input path, a number of output paths, one or more switch or splitter stages each comprising one or more optical switches or splitters, and at least one gate for optically disconnecting the output paths from the input path, wherein that gate is located at or near the input path. The cascaded switches according to the present invention are compact exhibit a reduced complexity and an improved insertion loss.

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Westervoort, Netherlands

Berend Hendriksen