Hybrid integrated 4 x 4 optical matrix switch module on silica based planar waveguide platform

The hybrid electrical/optical multi-chip integration technique for optical modules for optical network system has been developed. Employing the techni que, a 4x4 broadcast-and-select type optical matrix switch module has been realized. The module consists of four sets of silica waveguide 1:4 splitter s/4:1 combiners, four 4-channel arrays of polarization insensitive semicond uctor optical amplifiers with spot-size converters as optical gates, printe d wiring chips for electrical wiring and single mode fibers for optical sig nal interface on planar waveguide platform fabricated by atmospheric pressu re chemical vapor deposition. All the gates and the wiring chips were mount ed precisely onto the platform at once in hip-chip manner by self-align tec hnique using AuSn solder bumps. Coupling loss between the waveguide and the SOA gate was estimated to be 4.5 dB. Averaged fiber-to-fiber signal gain, on-off ratio and polarization dependent loss for each of the signal paths w as 7dB +/- 2 dB, more than 40 dB and 0.5 dB, respectively. High speed 10 Gb /s photonic cell switching as short as 2 nsec has been successfully achieve d. key words: hybrid photonic integration, semiconductor optical amplifier, planar lightwave circuit, optical gate switch, flip-chip bonding, spot-siz e conversion, optical switching, photonic ATM switch, optical fiber communi cation, optical network.