A COMPLETELY PACKAGED STRICTLY NONBLOCKING 8X8 OPTICAL MATRIX SWITCH ON INP INGAASP/

We report the fabrication of a completely packaged (including electron ic drivers) strictly nonblocking transparent optical 8 x 8 matrix swit ch for routing applications at wavelength 1.55 mu m. The matrix is rea lized in a hybrid way from eight identical submodules each containing a single InP/lnGaAsP chip with two 1 x 8 switches in parallel, The ave rage values for fiber-matrix-fiber insertion loss and cross talk suppr ession are 20 and 28 dB, respectively, The usable wavelength range is 1450-1600 nm, The results indicate that large InP/InGaAsP switching ma trices may be realized.