Lightwave Microsystems Corporation

Richard D Sherman

John T Kenney

A hybrid digital electro-optic switch has core and/or cladding areas that contain at least two different materials which undergo a change in their refractive index when an electric field is applied. One of the two different materials used in core regions, for example, has a change in refractive index that is less than the change in refractive index for the other material when the materials are exposed to the same electric field. A hybrid digital electro-optic switch functions by modulating the propagation constants of the eigenmodes of the switch with a voltage-induced refractive-index change, so that the propagation constants of the two materials are equal either in the presence or absence of the electric field. These electro-optic modulations change the evanescent coupling between the waveguides of the waveguide regions of the switch and transfer an optical signal that was input into one of the waveguides to a coupled waveguide. Compared to earlier digital electro-optic switch designs, the new switch has lower switching voltage, smaller device size, a sharper optical signal transfer, and wider manufacturing and use tolerances, and the switch can use a wide array of materials in its construction. The new switch can also be integrated with both the microstrip and coplanar traveling wave electrodes for very high speed photonic switching applications.

Growing community of inventors

Santa Monica, CA, United States of America

Richard D Sherman