PROPOSED WDM CROSS-CONNECT USING A PLANAR ARRANGEMENT OF WAVE-GUIDE GRATING ROUTERS AND PHASE SHIFTERS

We propose a reconfigureable wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) cr oss connect consisting of two ''interleave-chirped'' waveguide grating routers connected by waveguides with phase shifters. For the 2 line x 2 line case, any wavelength channel in one line can be exchanged with the same wavelength channel in the other line. For the P line xP line case, the channels can be switched in a cyclical fashion between line s. The device is compact with no waveguide crossings; is predicted to have relatively low and even losses for all channels; can theoreticall y achieve very high, fabrication-tolerant, switching extinction ratios ; and can theoretically achieve a nearly excess-loss-free rectangular spectral response.