Papers Published

1. Kozhevnikov, M; Ryf, R; Neilson, DT; Kolodner, P; Bolle, CA; Papazian, AR; Kim, J; Gates, JV, Micromechanical Optical Crossconnect with 4-F Relay Imaging Optics, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, vol. 16 no. 1 (2004), pp. 275-277, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) [LPT.2003.819416], [doi] .
   (last updated on 2024/04/18)

   Abstract:
   We describe a novel optical configuration for a microelectromechanical system (MEMS)-based beam-steering optical crossconnect. It incorporates 4-F imaging optics to relay light to the MEMS chip. This makes the system more tolerant to fiber-microlens misalignment. The use of a relay plus Fourier lens and patterned mirror removes the skew angle on the MEMS array and reduces the maximum angle for the MEMS mirror. A prototype 110 × 110 crossconnect employing imaging optics was constructed to validate the approach. This achieved a mean fiber-to-fiber insertion loss of 2.9 dB.

   Keywords:
   Composite micromechanics;Optical interconnects;Imaging techniques;Optical switches;Bandwidth;Optical fibers;Optical collimators;Optical instrument lenses;Mirrors;Arrays;