Waveguide Solutions6125 Lakeview Road, Suite 200Charlotte, North Carolina 28269E-mail: pjmoyer@email.uncc.eduAbstract. We present a design and simulations for a low power con-sumption, low manufacturing tolerance optical switch for integrated pho-tonic lightwave circuits (PLC). The design is applicable to all materialplatforms, including silicon, lithium niobate, indium phosphide, glass,polymer, sol-gel, and gallium arsenide, just to name a few. The mecha-nism is one that functions by altering the index of refraction in the multi-mode slab region of a multimode interference splitter via the thermo-optic or electro-optic effect. The design is unique in that the electrodesare distributed to maintain multimode behavior, which 1. renders the de-vice easy to manufacture via very loose tolerances, and 2. allows themultiple modes to vary adiabatically so as to maintain efficient opticalpower switching. The power consumption is only about four times higherthan that of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer switch, and it requires muchless tolerance in manufacturing.