MICROOPTICAL ELEMENTS FOR SINGLE-MODE FIBER ARRAYS FREE-SPACE INTERCONNECTIONS

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the performance of microop tics for telecommunication systems using free-space interconnects. Thi s concerns mainly distribution or switching and routing tasks. In orde r to evaluate the interconnection capability of free-space microoptics , we impose severe conditions on the interconnects. These conditions c orrespond to the use of single mode fibre arrays at both the input and the output systems. This point is shown to become very critical when dealing with optical switches involving reconfigurable links. These po ints are illustrated by two examples : one with fired and the other wi th reconfigurable interconnects but both using arrays of microoptical elements.