Vertical cavity surface emitting laser based optoelectronic asynchronous transfer mode switch

Abstract

Large broadband asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switch- ing nodes require novel hardware solutions that could benefit from the inclusion of optical interconnect technology, since electronic solutions are limited by pin out and by the capacitance/inductance of the intercon- nections. We propose, analyze and demonstrate a new three stage free space optical switch that utilizes vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) for the optical interconnections, a liquid crystal spatial light modulator (SLM) as a reconfigurable shutter and relatively simple optics for fan out and fan in. A custom complementary metal oxide semicon- ductor (CMOS) chip is required to introduce a time delay in the optical bit stream and to drive the VCSELs. Analysis shows that the switch should be scalable to 102431024, which would require 2048 ;2 mW VCSELs.